The Art of Letter Writing
by kiwigeek
Summary: Ginny is utterly devastated when Harry announces he has found another girl for himself. She falls into a catatonic state of depression, only to be saved from drowning by the most unlikely person. GWDM
1. Chapter 1

This used to be a story I wrote a few years ago, rather terribly, but now I've fixed it up and it is ready for re-release! Enjoy :)

**Chapter 1**

I ended up in a trance. I didn't understand. I couldn't quite comprehend what was happening to me, what was being done to me. I stuttered out a response. "What d'you mean?" My words were slurred together as if I was drunk, but this was a completely sobering thing that was taking place. I didn't understand, but he didn't need to answer my question. I knew what he was going to say, maybe not word for word but I knew. I didn't want to believe it. That was my problem. I think that's why it affected me so badly. My brain refused to process it all. The words. I hated them. I couldn't handle hearing those words put together that way.

"Me and you, Gin, we're too...different. I can't quite explain it properly..." He trailed off and probably expected me to smile and shrug and accept it. I could not.

"I don't - don't understand? Different, how?" We had been so happy for six whole months. Then I started crying, sobbing, and I knew he had done it. Tears. Tears falling freely down my cheeks. It made me look weak. But I was. He had used so few words to break my heart, and it just seemed so easy to him. It was over so quickly.

"We just are. I don't completely understand it myself, Gin, but please know that it's nothing to do with you, okay? It's all me, my problems. I'm sorry. Really." He gave me a last small hug and a kiss on my wet cheek. It was that that hurt the most. It was so sickeningly final. Then he turned and walked away. I was left standing by myself, with an intense throbbing pain inside and a stunned feeling of disbelief.

His words resounded in my head that night, over and over and over. _I don't want to be with you anymore_. How could breaking someone inside be so simple? So quick? And he was left without me, feeling happier, better. While I was left feeling shattered. Empty. He had drained me of energy. I collapsed into an armchair in the common room by the dying embers of the fire and tried to drown myself in my misery. Everything was so quiet. The silence pressed in on my eardrums and made me feel like screaming. Every few minutes I would be overcome by another wave or sorrow and a fresh onslaught of tears would come crashing down. I couldn't stop thinking about those words. That boy. I had thought about marrying him. That's how much I loved him. Love him. Because I still do. And I really, truly, honestly, sincerely thought he loved me too. Clearly not. What was wrong with me?

It seemed such a strange thing that the world was still turning. Life was still happening. For everyone else anyway. My state of insanity and depression lasted the entire night. I didn't sleep a wink. In the morning, people came downstairs and I was still there. They tried to ask me questions. I couldn't hear them. Couldn't or didn't want to? Others stood back and stared, like I was some new zoo exhibit. I suppose I looked like some kind of rabid animal, so I didn't blame them. I remember they didn't have faces. They were just blurs. Empty faces. One girl tried to pull me up and take me upstairs. I think I nearly bit her.

By lunchtime I knew that I was well and truly alone. No one cared. Not Harry Potter. Not my friends. I didn't even care anymore. What was the point in life if my one and only love was no longer in it? Suddenly a face appeared above me. I looked up and tried to make sense of the facial features. It was Jayda. My best friend, I guess you could say. My only friend, was more on the mark. I closed my eyes again and allowed the headache that had been threatening all day to finally pillage and destroy my brain.

"Ginny, he was just a boy. Get up." She was trying to be blunt. I think I was still far too weak to let that work on me. I cried more. I don't think she got the fact that he was _the_ boy. Then she startled me by picking me up, over her shoulder, and carrying me upstairs. Although she struggled, I was quite amazed at the strength she was displaying. Jayda was always like that. So strong and loyal. What a Gryffindor. My trance had ended when she threw me onto my bed. Finally I slept.

When I awoke later that evening, it took me a few moments to register my surroundings and figure out why I was fully clothed, waking at dinnertime. Then I groaned and fell back onto the pillows. Everything flooded back and hit me like a tsunami. Just as tears threatened to overcome me again, Jayda entered the dormitory and came to sit on the end of my bed. She looked slightly more sympathetic than I remembered her being earlier.

"Do you wanna tell me what happened? I saw you this morning and thought someone had died. Then I heard rumours all day. Harry beat you up, Harry killed your Pygmy Puff, Harry told you he was gay, Harry told you he was gay with your _brother_. Any of these true?" She was trying to make light of the situation.

I allowed myself a small smile. "Someone _has_ died. Me. I feel so...empty. I feel like nothing." It was unbelievable that one person could make me feel like this. I had deteriorated from a happy loving girl to a shell in so few hours.

Jayda raised her eyebrows sceptically. "Look, Ginny, I know he dumped you, and I know how you felt about him. But if he's that much of an idiot to not realise that you are the best thing he will ever lose, then he isn't worth crying over." I wasn't ready for this yet. I was still thinking of ways to get him back. "How 'bout I go get you some food? That'll make you feel better. Then we can talk properly." She smiled a genuine caring smile and I sat up to hug her.

"Thanks, Jay." I mumbled, before burying myself in my blankets as she left again.

By the next morning Jayda had managed to talk me round to actually showering and getting dressed. I decided to face the world with a blank face and silence. We headed down to the Great Hall early, in the hope to beat the gossips to breakfast. And also him. My heart was beating very fast and I was more nervous than the first time I set foot in that Hall. Everything went well to start with. I got a few stares, mostly from the other early Gryffindors but I managed to ignore them and eat my cereal. Jayda kept saying quietly that they were just jealous of my amazing single life. I just wanted to laugh. Or vomit. One of the two. Then it all went downhill from there.

Harry Potter entered the Hall and sat down a few spaces down from me, on the other side of the table. That made eating a particularly difficult task from then on. He looked at me and smiled a weak, pitying smile. It made me feel sick. Jayda told me to ignore him. I did my best. So many thoughts were racing through my brain. What if I went and spoke to him? What if he came and spoke to me? What if I really did throw up? What if I threw up on him? Then I got a highly irrational thought that maybe with a day to think about it, he had realised that he still loved me. I told Jayda that I was going to talk to him and she practically had a heart attack. By this time the Hall had filled up slightly more, especially our table, but when Harry Potter was on my mind, there wasn't really much room for anything else.

I stood up, and the whole table, including him, flicked their eyes straight to me. It didn't put me off. I walked down towards him and leant over. I swallowed nothing. My mouth was as dry as parchment. "Ha-Harry? Could I talk to you-outside? Please?" I put on the best smile I could for him. He had always liked my smiles. Or so he said.

Immediately he dropped his fork and stood up, nodding his head. I guess he still felt sorry for me. Perhaps he was humouring me. Perhaps he was thanking every single God that existed that I loved him. We moved into the Entrance Hall, where there were far fewer people. We were close and I could smell him. I thought it would make me less nervous. It made me feel worse.

"What is it, Gin?" He seemed just as nervous as me.

Well? What was it, Ginny? I hadn't thought of what to say. Then it all just came to me. I told him everything that I wanted in the entire world in a few small words. "Well, I was just wondering...-just wondering if, maybe, you might, um, perhaps want to be with me again?" God, I sounded so stupid. "You know, we can-can just forget what happened...th-the other night?"

Oh, God, oh, God, oh God. He looked so uncomfortable. What was he going to say? I held my breath and waited for those words. I had my happy tears and smile ready to go. "Oh, wow...Gin. Erm, this is...wow. Um, I...I can't. I mean, I...look, you're a really amazing person, really. But, I...you see, there's someone else."

Suddenly I couldn't breathe. The room became very hot and I felt my cheeks burning up. It was like it was happening all over again. I didn't say anything. Almost as if I was waiting for him to take it back. Or for time to rewind itself.

He spoke again: "I'm really sorry, Ginny. Really. I thought you would take it better than this...I'm sorry."

His hand was on my shoulder and he smiled sympathetically. Then he disappeared back into the Great Hall. Slowly I managed to regain some form of consciousness. Why had I done that to myself? It was torture. It was him killing me, murdering me a second time. The trance returned. I made my way, zombie-like, back to the spot beside Jayda. Everyone was watching me. Jayda looked apprehensive as I sat down next to her.

"Ginny-"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Ginny, I just didn't want you to get hurt even more..."

"You should've told me."

"It seemed like something you didn't really need to know. I'm sorry."

"That's not your decision to make. You should've told me."

"Ginny, I'm sorry..."

I kind of didn't feel a thing. I sat at the table and stared at nothing ahead of me. I didn't cry yet. I did my best to ignore everything and anything surrounding me until I was out of the public eye. The girls around me must have been counting down the seconds until I fled or cried and burst with emotion. The evil ones from my year were giggling. Jayda swore at them. The rest of the morning I experienced outside of myself. I guess I became someone else. Or I saw it as leaving my body and watching everything as a third person in my own life.

Ruby Harish came into existence. Obviously she already existed before any of this, but before any of this I never knew she was a person. I wished I was still ignorant of that fact. At first I didn't notice a thing; I was too busy dying inside. Then I saw a very pretty, blonde, big-bosomed, blue-eyed girl bounce her way into the room. She waved cheerily at someone on the Gryffindor table before sitting down with the Hufflepuffs. At least the attention was off of me. She was like the sun. Everything seemed to centre around her. I looked away, and back at the dregs of my cereal and thought nothing of it.

Five minutes later I heard a high-pitched giggle, and then the pretty, blonde, big-bosomed, blue-eyed girl came to our table. She was smiling and giggling. I felt a huge brick weight fall to the bottom of my stomach and bile rose in my throat. She sat down next to Harry Potter, chatting away as if they were the best of friends. He looked nervous as she looked at him with her huge eyes. Was it nerves because he knew I was there watching them? Or because this beautiful girl was clearly interested in him? I don't really know what hurt me more. She was so not like me. Had he just been pretending with me then?

Jayda was angrily muttering death threats under her breath next to me: "...gunna rip his bloody guts out, the git...squeeze his neck...and that bitch...who she thinks she is..." Part of me was rather amused, another part was glad I had such a loyal friend. The other part, the one that was barely holding back tears, wanted her to just be quiet and let me be.

Seven seconds later I was running out of the Great Hall sobbing in tears. I had happened to glance over just as their lips connected in a soft kiss. Their first? The ache inside my chest pounded away, and I felt a terrible loud drumming in my head, my heart beating rapidly. Jayda was giving the two of them an earful as I left. I ran up to the dormitory as fast as I could and slammed the door behind me. I didn't want to think about anything anymore. Jayda was close behind.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

I really don't know how I did it but I found a way to continue breathing. I was still completely and utterly devastated. But a part of me knew that I had to go on, however hard it may be. Jayda at first kept on with her tactic of being mean and tough but I think she soon realised that that wasn't working. Before long she was instead being as nice as she could be, giving me plenty of hugs (which must have been very hard for her) and saying as many comforting things as she could think of.

It was all going reasonably well. I guess. "There's loads of others, Gin, don't worry. Just don't think about it." She advised in Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was very easy to say that but a whole universe harder to actually do it. I was beginning to see just how much harder when dinner time came around a few days later.

"Hogwarts will, for the first time in over 100 years, have an End of Year Ball. All—" Before McGonagall could finish her sentence there were high-pitched squeals of excitement from girls (and some boys) around the Great Hall. A weight the size of several cars and an elephant dropped inside my stomach and I groaned silently. Just what a recently-dumped girl needed.

This was a chance for all the pretty girls to show off how young and pretty they really were in front of their good-looking boyfriends, or in fact any boy (friend or not) that deserved a look. I would not be attending. I simply refused. I mean, yes it was basically a year away, and who knows, maybe by then I might have moved on from Harry and found someone else (yeah right) or better yet, Ruby Harish would have moved away to some far far away country and Harry and I would be back together, the way it should be. But regardless of any of that, I was not going. Not going. Not. Going.

McGonagall then announced that the Ball was only for fifth-years and up (which caused a huge amount of grief and protests from the younger students in the Hall). I genuinely did not care. I looked over at Jayda to see her listening intently to what the Professor was saying. When she was finished, Jayda turned back to me with a big smile on her face.

"Ginny, this is brilliant! I'm so excited for this!" She squealed enthusiastically, acting totally unlike her.

I rolled my eyes. "You don't have anyone to go with either, F.Y.I. You're going to stay with me all night and we can be miserable together, please miss." I asserted firmly.

Jayda was not to be shut down so easily. "No! Ginny, this is for you, this Ball, as ridiculous as I think it is, it'll be good for you. We'll find you another guy, someone totally cute and stupendously amazing and we'll shove him down Harry's throat til he chokes to death!" She laughed evilly and grinned at me, clearly impressed with this idea she had formed in her crazy little head.

I sighed a dramatic sigh. "First of all, I don't want to find another guy. Second of all, I doubt I ever will manage to find another guy. And thirdly, if you kill him then we'll never get back together and you'll be carted off to Azkaban, which I'm sure neither of us could ever handle. Life would be much easier if we just forgot this whole stupid Ball was even happening."

Later that day, what seemed like every single girl at Hogwarts seemed intent on making me feel like the brown stuff that gets stuck on the bottom of your shoe. I couldn't have one conversation with anyone without it turning to something to do with the Ball. Dresses, hair, shoes, make-up, hair, shoes, dresses, colour schemes, matching dresses with dress robes, matching dresses with dresses and make-up with hair (who even knew you could _do_ that?) and so much other inconsequential nonsense that nearly forced me to tear my hair out. Even my best friend of so many years, who was usually of the same mind-set as me, being against girls that are all clones of each other doing what the current trend and fashion tells them to do, Jayda was obsessed with this Ball.

By dinner that same day I had had enough and let my temper and terribly dark mood get the better of me. Afterwards I felt bad about it, but to be honest, she (and every other female I knew) had it coming.

"I think you should wear blue, Gin, or perhaps a nice green. That would look good. Okay so who are we going to set you up with? Robbie Danes in Ravenclaw has always looked good to me." She gasped dramatically. "You two would look so good together, I'll have a chat to him tomorrow for you in—"

She had been vomiting garbage like this all day; I had to put a stop to it. "Jayda, shut up! Seriously, just stop talking! I don't care about any of this stupid drivel you've been harping on about! I don't care about dresses, or the Ball, or bloody Robbie Danes! _I am not going_. So stop!"

Jayda looked so shocked and taken aback. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she finally came out with: "Jeez, Ginny, I, I was just trying to help you get over Harry. Calm down."

"Did you ever think that I didn't want to get over him just yet? Hm? You think about that while you were choosing what underwear I'm wearing to the Ball? Just make sure it matches the nail polish you pick out, Jay. Ooh and don't let it clash with Robbie Danes' hair!"

With that final bellow, I noticed how much attention I had drawn to myself. My cheeks went bright red, I cleared my throat and attempted to exit the Great Hall inconspicuously, which proved rather hard to achieve seeing as most its occupants had their eyes on me.

The long walk up to the common room I huffed and puffed angrily and I think by the time I reached the dormitory that the castle was about ready to blow down with all my angst and depression still inside. I sat on my bed for a long time thinking about how miserable my life was at the moment. I had lost the only person I had ever loved. Then I had managed to push my only friend away, the sole person who really cared about how horrible I was feeling. Way to go, Ginny. Kudos on the great interpersonal skills.

I woke in the morning feeling the same as I had every day for the past couple of weeks – like going back to sleep and never waking up. But I put on my brave face and got showered and dressed anyway. Jayda was in the common room reading when I went down. She looked up at the sound of my footsteps and went back to her book when she saw that it was me. Fortunately at least some things were going my way, because the room was mostly empty for my epic apology, which would probably end in tears from me. Not Jayda, she was a stone sometimes.

I perched on the edge of the table in front of her and started. "I guess you're still mad at me, huh?"

She nodded stiffly, her eyes not leaving the book she was so absorbed in. "Yep."

"Well, I should be just as mad at you, you know." She gave me an evil glare as if to say 'yeah right' and returned to her book. Great way to start an apology, Ginny. "Look, I get that you were just trying to help, Jay, but obsessing about that stupid stupid Ball is not what I need right now. I need my friend. I'm sorry that flipped out on you last night, okay?"

She was silent. "And you can stop ignoring me, pretending to read because you're book is upside down, you spaz." I let out a little laugh. When she looked up smiling, I breathed a sigh of relief.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

A few weeks passed and I was still in a catatonic state of depression. It seemed I could not go anywhere in the castle without seeing my _ex-boyfriend_ (I hated using those words) and his new arm-candy sucking each others faces off. It did not get any less painful, just more frequent. They were in the common room, the Great Hall, the dungeons, down by the lake, strolling around the Hogwarts grounds, flaunting their budding new relationship together. I had never seen Harry look so happy. Stupid horny little boy that he was.

The story of our blockbuster break-up was gradually dying down. It was around third on the list of the gossips, slowly moving to fourth place and eventually, by October it was no longer something that everyone felt the need to discuss. This helped to ease my sorrow, knowing that it was not my name in the same sentence with 'poor girl' or 'Harry Potter is single?' anymore.

As much as I was beginning not to really care, Hermione and Ron kept me in the loop on how Harry was going with Ruby Harish. I'm sure they must have been in on making me feel worse, because everything they passed on to me was never something I wanted to hear. By the middle of the week I was starting to feel better about myself and life, and then usually on Friday afternoons one of the two would drop their bombshell of 'Harry and Ruby went on a date the other night' or 'they kissed all afternoon'. Then I would sink back into my bad mood for the weekend, thoughts of the two of them making everything seem like a bad thing.

The final straw came when I was taking a walk alone down near the lake one cold and windy Sunday morning. Jayda always slept in as long as she could, so I had mornings to myself most weekends. I was deep in thought, consumed with angst over my current situation, staring at the ground without really seeing anything when I bumped headfirst into someone.

"Sorry!" I quickly apologised.

"Watch where you're going, Weaslette. Don't get my coat dirty." The someone drawled, turning to look at me.

Draco Malfoy, yuck. "You know, on second thought, I'm not so sorry after all." I pushed past him and the girl he was with.

He called after me, an evil jeer in his voice. "Why so lonely, Weasley? Oh, that's right, Harry Potter dumped you, isn't that something? Nobody wants a weasel like you." The girl cackled shrilly.

"Shut up, Malfoy!" I shouted back but kept walking, hot angry tears falling now, ones that I did not want him to see.

I walked as fast as my legs could carry me back up to the castle, past the Great Hall, my head down but with more tears spilling out and an ache in my chest. At the Fat Lady, I passed Harry and Ron just as they were climbing out.

"Woah, Ginny, what's wrong?" Harry asked, sounding concerned.

It made me even angrier. "Just leave me alone, Harry!" I cried and stormed up to the dormitory.

Cold, chilly November came around, and with it the snow and northerly breezes, chilling everything and everyone to the bone. My outlook on everything changed considerably. Rather than being sad and upset, instead I was angry and upset, just at Harry Potter. Jayda even commented that I was turning back into a normal girl, a slight sense of relief in her voice when she said it. I couldn't quite believe it, but I think I was actually beginning to get over this silly boy.

Just to make sure I was definitely on the way there and moving steadily along, Jayda came up with another one of her muggle ideas for the weekend ahead. "There's a Hogsmeade trip this Saturday, Gin, shall we go? I think it'll help a lot, you know, a bit of retail therapy?"

I snorted at the absurd idea. "Retail therapy? What on earth is that? Therapy from a jacket?" I laughed at my own joke quietly.

Jayda smiled and rolled her eyes. "No, Ginny, the shopping helps to take your mind of stuff and make you feel better. Trust me, it works, that's how my mother gets over her husbands – using their credit cards, their money, to go on a shopping spree."

I was still sceptical about it all. "I don't know, Jay, it sounds weird. And plus, I have no money. I only have enough to buy Christmas presents for a few people."

She was quite familiar with my financial situation, having been a close friend of it along with me for several years. The ironic thing was that Jayda's family was rolling in it. Her mother had a knack for finding rich men. As much as I hated it, over the years Jayda had funded a significant amount of my school supplies – things that a twelve-year-old has to have (such as the coolest new game or a sweet that everyone was raving about). She never mentioned it.

"Well then, we'll go window shopping and you can choose a new outfit and it can be my Christmas present for you. How's that?" She negotiated. That sounded fair to me.

And so it was that that weekend, the two of us could be found enjoying a delectable butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks. We had spent most of the morning and a fraction of the afternoon meandering aimlessly around Hogsmeade. I had made my Christmas purchases: a box of Bertie Botts Exclusives, Sugar Quills and a new journal for Jayda to write in; a beautiful elegant eagle feathered quill for Hermione and an enchanted back-scratcher that I found at Fred and George's new shop (for those hard to reach places when she was busy scrawling away at an essay); and for Ron, a winter hat (he lost his) and chocolate frogs. Naturally, I didn't bother with a present for my ex-boyfriend.

As we downed our second butterbeer and started snacking on some nuts that Madame Rosmerta had given us, I was beginning to understand what Jayda had meant about retail therapy. I hadn't thought about him all day. And I felt good about myself, wearing the new black woollen jumper and golden snitch earrings that Jayda had bought for me. I was smiling. Yes, I had a grin on my face! This turned into a snorting manic giggle when Jayda cracked a joke about the overweight warlock and his much younger girlfriend, referencing it to her mother.

I snorted into my mug of butterbeer, spluttering the golden liquid all over my face and hands and the table. Jayda burst into a fit of laughter, which further boosted me into laughter at her reaction and eventually the two of us were heads down, thumping the table with tears streaming down our faces. When we finally calmed down, the mirth seemed to be just held at bay on our lips as we both tried to talk of something with a little less hilarity involved.

We dried our eyes and sighed simultaneously, which triggered more giggles. When we could speak, Jayda commented on my good mood. "What did I tell you, Gin, did this retail therapy work or did it work? Honestly, I haven't seen you this happy since you were with…er…." She cleared her throat, red-faced. "I just ruined it, didn't I?"

I shook my head, the lump in my throat miraculously disappearing. I breathed a sigh of relief. I was cured! "It's fine! Really!" I reassured her. And just to return the mood to its previous buoyancy, I pointed out to her the inappropriate activities that aforementioned couple were now treating themselves to. The titters returned quietly, followed by huge loud guffaws of glee that attracted some stares when Madame Rosmerta stormed over to separate the two of them.

We stood up to leave, tears of laughter flooding out. As we passed through the doorway we met my brother and ex-boyfriend (it was getting unbelievably easier to call him that as the days passed). Our faces dropped and we went silent as we walked away. They noted our wet faces, cold gazes and said not a word either as they stared after us. Seeing Harry, I expected that horrible feeling of guilt and anger and a myriad of other emotions to come boiling up to the surface. It didn't. All Jayda and I could do was erupt with laughter as we walked away.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Christmas Day rolled around and I was feeling like I was back to my normal self. I was rather impressed with my remarkable haul of gifts. Even though Jayda had already bought me the sweater and earrings, there was a roughly wrapped present lying at the end of my bed which I admonished her for buying me before I ripped it open anyway. Inside rested the matching necklace to the snitch earrings and a very pretty jewelled hair clip. I slipped it into my hair and had a look in the mirror.

"Thank you, Jay, it's beautiful."

She smiled at my reaction and the sight of the clip in my hair before tearing open a gift from her older sister. She snorted and laughed at what lay in her lap. Then she held it up and I cracked up with laughter also. '_Karma Sutra for the Curious Teen_'. "Wow. I guess that's my sister for you." She remarked.

I sniggered a little and then returned my attention to the other presents: from my mother a green jumper (what else) and a package of assorted homemade sweets; a letter writing set from Hermione; in a neat little box from Ron was a sunflower brooch that emitted a sweet smelling perfume at certain intervals throughout the day (very thoughtful); and Fred and George sent loads of different things from their shop, with a note that said they would be very useful throughout my exams next year.

There was one last package when I was finished. It sat lifelessly on the corner of my bed, nearly falling off. I could not, for the life of me, think who it was from. I had opened all my family's gifts – Jayda, Ron, Hermione, Fred and George and Mum. As soon as I picked it up I realised. A small, tightly wrapped box from Harry. Jayda swore when I showed her but I just smiled. "Well, it's one more gift for me I guess, who cares who it came from."

"That idiot is so damn clueless!" Jayda was so quick to anger sometimes.

And, as it turned out, so was I. "He's just trying to be nice, it's…" I trailed off as I saw what was inside. A handkerchief and a box of tissues. And a note – _Ginny, it looked like you could use some of these lately. Harry._

Without thinking, I stormed downstairs, looking for the imbecile that I had once loved. I was the angriest I had ever been – incensed, irate, furious, enraged, fuming. Think of any word that had to do with being angry and I was it, tenfold. In the common room Harry was sitting in front of the fire, oblivious to the other one that was raging towards him from another direction. He looked up just as I landed a punch on his nose with the full force of my wrath behind it.

I thrust the hanky and note in his gobsmacked face. "What the hell is this?" I screamed. It was a rhetorical question but he tried to answer anyway.

"Gin—wha? It was just meant to be a joke!"

That just aggravated me further. "You think this is funny? YOU THINK _THIS_ IS FUNNY?" This time I opted for a good hard slap across his stupid face, which knocked his glasses off.

By this point there was a crowd around us, with Jayda, Ron and Hermione in two minds about stopping me, and risking being attacked themselves. I didn't care who saw – in fact I wanted people to see. I wanted everyone to see what a useless, pathetic excuse for a wizard Harry Potter was. I continued my physical assault on him; scratching, kicking, slapping, punching, screaming obscenities. This was payback, my revenge on him for my months of misery and solitude that he had caused. All the tears, the sleepless nights, the pent up anger was finally being released. And he was paying. I came at him with a force I didn't even know I possessed.

When I was finally exhausted and out of words to throw at him I dropped the 'gifts' on his lap and fixed him with a look that would have made You-Know-Who proud. I didn't say anything – I had given him enough to think about along with the bruises and (hopefully) broken bones. I turned and walked calmly back upstairs, slamming the dormitory door a little extra hard to make sure my point was definitely made and heard.

I sat on my bed and took deep deep breaths in and out until my heart rate had slowed down and I could actually speak. A few minutes later Jayda poked her head into the room, checking I wasn't tearing the place down. She came in and sat next to me, eyeing me tentatively, clearly unsure of how she should proceed. I decided to help her out a little.

"I'm okay now." I said, half-reassuringly.

She let out a huge breath and put her hand on my shoulder. "Jesus Christ, Ginny! Who _was_ that down there? You were like a crazy person." She exclaimed and I laughed a little tiredly, shrugging. "You broke half his fingers and probably his nose, too! I'm impressed."

I chuckled, then lay back on the bed with my eyes closed, exhausted from my explosion of violence. "He deserved it…I hate him." I said quietly, after thinking about it.

"Don't blame ya." Jayda said crudely. "Come on, let's get sorted and go down for some turkey!" She said excitedly. Anything to do with food had Jayda in fits of excitement.

It was the morning after when it happened. The day that I had thought would never come had finally arrived. As was my custom on a Sunday morning, I was sitting on a bench outside in the Hogwarts grounds enjoying the picturesque scene that lay before me. Nothing calmed or relaxed me more than the tranquil sight of pure white snowflakes falling. Snow was the part of winter, my favourite season, that I loved the most. There was not a thing that held more beauty in life.

I was in a peaceful daze, hardly a care in the world and not a single negative thought occupying my mind. And then I had it. The epiphany I felt I had been waiting for for months. When a group of older Ravenclaws walked past me, one of the males among the grouped glanced back at me and smiled amicably. I knew him as Stoneworth. His little sister had just stared Hogwarts in Gryffindor. I smiled back, as was the polite thing to do. This Stoneworth was certainly good-looking, with his tall muscular stature, dark shaggy hair and dusky brown eyes.

As he walked away, it happened. My epiphany. This was the first time since Harry that I had admired a member of the opposite sex, which brought about my realisation of the fact that I was finally over Harry Potter! I thought deep and hard about him, about the feelings we had shared, the kisses and good times and bad. I thought about my long depression and the anger I had vented yesterday. Gone. All gone. I smiled, grinned an enormous grin and let out a happy laugh. Harry Potter. I waited for something, anything to surface. I flicker of emotion. Nothing. I was over him!

The New Year proved to hold many confusing events for me. Indeed, I was over Harry Potter and so much the better for it. I enjoyed weeks of not having any stupid boys to think about. Although I did get my last ever Harry-Ruby update from Hermione. Apparently, they were going through a rocky patch. I could not give a flying hippogriff what kind of patch they were going through or how rocky it was. I. Did. Not. Care. When I told my brother and Hermione that, they seemed a little shocked and also sorry that they no longer had much of a reason to talk to me anymore.

School work slowly became worse and worse. Every class seemed more tedious and challenging than the previous one. Homework piled up on my desk so much that by February there was a towering mess of chaos and clutter spilling onto the floor and onto my bed. One morning I woke up and I could've sworn I saw something move underneath all the parchment and ink bottles. It was O.W.L.s in a few short months and Jayda and I were totally unprepared. We decided to both knuckle down together and get all our homework done all in one weekend.

February 14th rolled around and it was a Friday afternoon before dinner. I had just finished Potions with my favourite professor of all time and I was heaving my textbook-laden bag up to the Gryffindor common room so Jayda and I could get some more done before we ate. She was still down in the dungeons with Snape, having passed him a rather sarcastic smart remark during the lesson. Now he was making her clean out all the cauldrons with a toothbrush before she could even think about leaving.

I heard a commotion ahead and, my curiosity sparked, turned the corner to find several people lying on the floor, moaning and crying and rolling about in a lot of pain, clutching various parts of their body, mainly their faces. I dropped my bag and ran forward to try and find out what was wrong and help them out. Then I smelt a rather odd odour about the place, one that I couldn't quite place. Just as I saw what was so painful for these poor people, I fell back as if someone had just hit me in the face. My nose started swelling up painfully. My whole face ached and throbbed. I let out a cry of agony.

All over my body I was sprouting, excruciatingly growing second and third copies of things. All of a sudden I had two extra left arms swelling from my armpit. A throbbing inside my shoe told me I had a few extra toes now. And worst of all was the extra noses that were now fully grown either side of my regular nose. Such pain I had never felt before. Then I realised what this was. But why would someone do this in such a busy corridor at peak rush hour time? Just before I blacked out from the agony of it all, I saw three identical young girls in the next corridor giggling and laughing as if our pain was the funniest thing they had ever seen. The Weatherfield sisters. Of course.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The Weatherfield sisters were now infamous at Hogwarts. They were in their third year in Slytherin and had already terrified somewhere close to 90% of the student population and faculty. They were triplets – small, skinny and identical with short cropped black hair and bangs. Most students on their first day at school were quiet and shy, trying to stay out of trouble as best they could (except Fred and George of course). The triplets had instead worked together to purposely spill cauldrons and cauldrons full of potions and elixirs in the Entrance Hall.

Overnight they became Peeves' best friend and Filch's worst nightmare. They had worked up quite a following within the Slytherin community but with the rest of the school they weren't entirely popular. They could not go a week without breaking into some forbidden classroom, dormitory or area and wreaking havoc. Last year they wheedled their way into the Gryffindor common room, up to the girl's dormitory and set everyone's bedding alight. A week later they terrorised the birds in the Owlery by setting off firecrackers.

And now, somehow, they had managed to track down (illegally, I'm sure) a glass vial of Tripoculus Gas. I, along with 20 or so others, was now painfully experiencing the full effects of this god-awful gas. It had the ability to triple any body parts of its victim that it chose. That's why I was now sporting three noses; six extra toes on my right foot; three left arms; and three belly buttons (that was the most painful of all, trust me). There was a large miserable group of us lying in the Hospital Wing being fixed, which was no easy feat and Madam Pomfrey had had to call in several of her seventh-year recruits – young witches and wizards hoping to be Healers when they left Hogwarts.

"Mending bones, cuts, bruises – easy! Getting rid of whole limbs, well that's an entire other story! And Tripoculus Gas! For Heaven's sake!" She kept up with random outbursts of this kind every few minutes, startling her patients. Evidently, it was going to be a very long and laborious (and painful) process. The Gas that the triplets had obtained was a particularly lethal version of it. The effects of the Gas were hard to remedy anyway, now it was going to be even trickier because of the aggressive strain they had chosen. But that's not the worst part of this story.

So there I was, in a Hospital bed trying to ignore the pain of my many added body parts throbbing and writhing about as they slowly and painstakingly shrunk back to wherever the hell they originated from. And this period was made all the merrier with the silver-haired Slytherin that every Gryffindor loved to hate in the bed next to me. I ignored him as best I could, and he seemed to be doing the same which I guess proved best for both of us at the time. He did look rather comical (although I'm sure I did as well) with an extra set of lips above and below his original ones. I noticed he had two more right hands than was normal and, unfortunately for him, each of those extra hands had sprouted two extra thumbs. It was one of the most bizarre and entertaining sights I had ever seen.

Just as an amused smirk crossed my face, Malfoy looked up and caught me laughing at him. He snarled like a dog at me. "And just what do you think you're laughing at, Weasley?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realise the circus freak show had come early this year." I remarked, a little smile at my lips. He certainly wasn't in a good mood today, which made teasing and provoking all the more fun and easy.

He scowled. "Looked in the mirror lately, weirdo? You don't exactly look like the Queen of the Muggle-Lovers." I chuckled, which seemed to incense him even further. He turned away towards the windows and ignored me for the rest of the evening.

Later that night was when the craziest thing yet happened. It was absolutely impossible to get even a wink of sleep and I tossed and turned all night long in the most frustrating discomfort. At around 2am after I had dozed intermittently, I opened my eyes to stare into space. When I turned on my side to look out the windows and into the moonlight, a rather disturbing thing occurred. Draco Malfoy was watching at me. Eyes wide open, staring at me unfalteringly. For a split second, he didn't realise I had noticed his creepy eye. Then he blinked, looked incredulously shocked and quickly turned away without saying a thing. If it had been daylight, I'm sure he would have been blushing violently.

I didn't quite know what to make of it all. He wasn't touching himself (thank Merlin), he wasn't sleeping with his eyes open and he most certainly wasn't staring at me as if he was some creepy stalker. Or was he? No! For goodness sake, Ginny, this is Draco Malfoy you're talking about! It was the most peculiar thing that had happened to me in a very long time. Draco Malfoy was the arch nemesis of every Gryffindor and even more so, every member of the Weasley family, me especially so because his father had been the main instigator for the torment I endured at the hands of Tom Riddle five years ago. For every minute I had known him, I hated him. And I was fairly sure the feeling was reciprocated. He was the most repulsive human being I knew. He was foul, abhorrent, nasty, vile and just plain ugly, ugly, ugly.

So why, oh why had he been staring at me? It was totally unfathomable. And it certainly guaranteed that I did not sleep a wink the entire night. I (surprisingly) found myself wondering if he was lying awake all night too. Then I thought, who the hell cares if he's awake? As I tried to think about anything but the beast lying in the bed next to me, it obviously only worked to make me think about nothing but him. The peculiarity of the situation was what perturbed me the most. A Malfoy. The Malfoy. Staring at me. Watching me sleep? Perhaps I was thinking too much into this, and maybe he was just gazing unfocused into space, unable to sleep the same as me, and it just so happened that his gaze into the unknown was unintentionally in my direction. Gah!

I woke with blood shot puffy eyes, amazed at how I had managed to sleep at all. The last time I remembered checking my watch was at 5am. I must have looked a sight. I put my hands on my stomach, pleased to find that my bellybuttons had disappeared and also the extra toes were gone. Painfully gone, but gone none the less. Madam Pomfrey was doing her rounds as I sat up. She was handing out a miserable excuse for breakfast (porridge) and checking everyone's afflictions. When she finally got around to me, she gave me the prognosis, along with the slop, that it would take another day and night for the arms and noses to recede and also delighted me with the information that facial burdens were the most painful of them all and I was in for a rough night. Another one.

By lunchtime half the students (Malfoy not included) had been allowed to leave, and I watched sadly as they departed. I had managed to nap occasionally but the aching in my face kept me awake. Around 1pm I was pleased to see Jayda's friendly face enter the Hospital Wing. She gave me a big smile and scurried over, jumping onto the end of the bed excitedly. She looked like she had some exciting news to share.

"Thank God you're here, I was about ready to go insane in here!"

"Well, I've been pretty bored by myself too and when I saw Terry Boot at breakfast this morning I thought maybe you would be on your way out too?" She asked hopefully.

I slowly and sadly shook my head. "Pomfrey says I won't be out until tomorrow. And my nose hurts so bad!" In a quieter tone I added, "And check out who I get as a roommate." I motioned discreetly to the sleeping Slytherin next to me.

Jayda laughed loudly. "Wow, Ginny! You are so lucky! I wish I was stuck in here with that!" She half-shouted, obviously intending to wake the slumbering beast.

As I expected, Madam Pomfrey poked her head out of her office looking stern. "Quiet voices please, Miss Brown or I will have to ask you to leave." Then she disappeared again.

We giggled a little and then, turning serious, I checked to make sure Malfoy was definitely asleep. Then I informed Jayda of what had transpired in the early hours of the morning. She frowned for a few moments before shrugging. "Well, who can attempt to understand the strange and alien workings of the mind of a horrid monster like Malfoy?" Her response made me feel like an idiot. She was totally right – who cared why he was lying awake staring at me? I had been up all night wondering when I should've just shrugged it off.

More curious things started happening after that. A week later, Tripoculus Gas and body parts all forgotten, Jayda and I were sitting in the library one cold and wet afternoon finishing essays and quizzes and other boring, mundane homework exercises. I had basically disregarded the incident in the Hospital Wing and moved on to other, more important things (such as how Gorbag the Gothic convinced his fellow goblins to follow him and revolt against their human masters, very crucial that I knew this information for later in life). I stretched back in my seat, rotating and flexing my wrist a few times to help the cramp I had developed.

I yawned and gazed absently out the window at the torrential rain that was pounding down on the Hogwarts grounds. In the distance I could see Hagrid constructing a tarpaulin cover for his patch of Grubberlump Worms. Returning to my essay, which was barely halfway there, I sighed and yawned again. Then I decided that the books on the shelves around me were much more interesting and needed my utmost attention. As I was perusing the selection in front of me, I noticed on the other side of the shelves that Malfoy was sitting by himself, scrawling away at a piece of parchment. Why would Malfoy be by himself? Surely he always had to be surrounded by his goons and disciples.

He paused in his writing and looked around, as if to check that no one was watching him, and then spotted me gawking at him wide-eyed through the bookshelf. He glared at me, quickly gathered his papers into his bag and marched off angrily. No smarmy remark, no insulting derogatory version of my surname, not even a swear word telling me where I could go. What on earth was happening to Draco Malfoy?


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

By March, Jayda had bagged herself a boyfriend. And one of the most popular, cutest Ravenclaws too. One evening I was studying in the common room when she came scurrying in, a ball of excitement.

"Ginny! Oh my God, Ginny, you will _never_ guess who just asked me to go to Hogsmeade with them next weekend!" She exclaimed, sitting down next to me with a huge grin on her face.

I smiled, knowing who it probably was. She had been obsessed with this guy all year since he came back from the summer holidays taller, more muscular and much better-looking. "Hmm…one of my brothers?" I offered teasingly.

She laughed and slapped my arm playfully. "Ryan Ferguson! I still cannot believe it, Gin! He wants to take me (me!) out for lunch and a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks. Isn't that just totally insane?" She was practically bouncing up and down with joy.

I was genuinely happy for her. It wasn't common for a girl like Jayda to like a guy, in fact it was pretty rare. So when she was able to get this enthusiastic over a date with a Ravenclaw, I had to be happy for her. I didn't like feeling it but I did get a slight pang of jealousy. Not that I also liked Ryan Ferguson, but because I felt like I was ready to move on from Harry officially and find someone else. I was certainly entitled to, considering how quickly he had managed to find a new girlfriend. I think it must have been a record.

Not that I wasn't enjoying being single and carefree, but I found that there was an increasing number of couples around me. Jayda and Ryan had hit it off remarkably well on their first date and they were now technically a real bona fide couple. I noticed it one morning at breakfast when I looked up from the book I was reading. Harry and Ruby were snogging indecently down the table; Ron and Hermione were having another heated argument about something or other; Jayda and Ryan were being lovey-dovey holding hands at the doors into the Great Hall as they prepared themselves for separation over breakfast when Ryan ate at a different table; even Neville was having an in-depth conversation with Luna Lovegood, who was today sporting a shockingly bright lime green dress and matching cabbage shaped hat to support National Cabbage day. Across the Hall other couples became strikingly obvious for some strange reason – Cho Chang and some seventh-year brute, Susan Bones and a rather insipid-looking character also from Hufflepuff, Draco Malfoy and his obnoxious girlfriend. It all made me feel rather gloomy.

When Jayda sat down next to me and sighed happily, I rolled my eyes. "Today sucks." I stated bluntly.

"Aw, don't be such a sourpuss, Gin. It's not so bad! We have our health and our youth! What more could you want?" She joked as she grabbed a piece of bacon and wolfed it down along with a fried egg and some orange juice. I swear that girl could eat like a starving Hippogriff.

Things perked up when the owls flew in, dropping letters and packages down to their respective owners, when a plain envelope fell into my lap. Surprised, I looked for the sender. There was no name. Strange. I wasn't expecting any mail from anyone in particular and this handwriting seemed rather unfamiliar to me. It was a neat and tidy hand, long and slender letters with swooping y's and g's. Jayda watched impatiently over my shoulder as I opened it and pulled out a short letter addressed to me in the same elegant handwriting.

_Ginny Weasley,_

_This may seem a little odd to receive a letter of this sort. You don't really know me all that well, but I think it's time I let you know my true feelings. Since you started at Hogwarts I have watched you from afar, my feelings growing as we both did too. This past year or so I have watched in torment as you wasted your love on Harry Potter. I suffered even more so when I saw the pain you went through when you broke up. I really like you a lot, Ginny Weasley. Maybe one day you will feel the same towards me. If you wish to reply, look for the pure black owl in the Owlery._

_Sincerely yours,_

_T.D._

My hands shook slightly as I read. A love letter? Really? Who even did that anymore? "It must be a joke…" I said shakily.

"Ooooooh, Ginny has a secret admirer!" Jayda shrieked before collapsing into fits of laughter. My face was bright red.

"Shut up, Jay." I quietly folded the parchment back into its envelope and placed it in my pocket carefully, painfully aware of the many people staring at me. Clearly Jayda's tease had been loud enough for the girls in our house to hear, as well as Harry, who surfaced from his kiss with Ruby, chapped lips and all, to gawk at me. He looked like he didn't believe what he was hearing. His response made me angry. Yes, I was over him, but I felt his treatment of me earlier and said reaction justified what I did next. "I wonder who it _is_!" I said emphatically and loudly.

Jayda caught her breath and slapped me light-heartedly, her cheeks just as red as mine. "Oh, honestly, Ginny! Who on earth writes love letters! It's so lame! And _so_ funny!"

"I bet it's someone gorgeous and amazing! I mean, obviously he has a lot of courage to write something as incredible as that!" I grinned at Jayda's snorting giggle as I stood up to leave for classes.

Jayda got up and followed me, noticing Harry's shocked face as she did. As she passed him, she leaned down to him and said loudly. "I guess _you_ missed your chance, bucko! Ginny Weasley has a hot new love interest, which means you, you boob, are outta luck. Better luck next time, chump!" She blew a raspberry in his face and walked out of the Hall after me, laughing and snorting together with me.

When I looked back just before we disappeared down to the dungeons, Harry Potter looked stupidly dumbfounded and it was one of the most satisfying things I had ever seen.

All that day and the days that followed, I was preoccupied with thoughts about who this mysterious 'T.D.' might be and whether or not it was some sort of amusing hoax, because if it was it was totally humourless to me. Jayda urged me to reply, just as seriously, as if there actually was some anonymous guy out there who had been desperately in love with me since I was 11. Just hearing it described like that made me want to laugh. I had half a mind to write a sarcastic response telling the trickster that he (or she) was not funny whatsoever and to leave me alone.

A week passed and the 'love letter' remained folded away in a pocket in one of my robes. Jayda finally sold me with her idea of replying genuinely. She said I should do as the letter said and take my reply to the black owl in the Owlery, where she would attach a Boyfriend Tracker to it – a bright pink tag with a homing device that would send hourly location reports to a piece of parchment that she had (a rather clever new item from Fred and George's shop, evidently intended for the paranoid girlfriend). That way we could find out at least the house that this T.D. was in, maybe we could even track him (or her) down if we were quick.

It took me a few hours to form some kind of substantial, legible reply. In the end I opted for a simple, straight-forward paragraph:

_T.D._

_You're right, I have never had a letter like this before. And I'm sure you can understand if I am a little sceptical if this is legit or not. But I've decided to take your word for it. Do you think maybe we could meet? Obviously you have a reason for writing a letter instead of just talking face to face but perhaps we could get to know each other. For instance, what does T.D. stand for? Anyway, let me know what you thinking about meeting up._

_Ginny._


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The Boyfriend Tracker proved a futile process. After all, it was just a cheap novelty idea and designed to slip inside someone's robes or trouser pocket rather than be clipped on something that was flying any number of metres high into the air. Jayda and I had eagerly traced it to a spot in the grounds, feeling like top-secret detectives on a covert investigation. We found the pink tag scratched and broken in two lying in the snow. We were lousy detectives.

It took a while for him to reply though and while I waited, another reason surfaced for me to hate Harry Potter and Ruby Harish. It seemed Ruby had been away on holiday well into the New Year, much longer than all other students were allowed. Her family had taken a winter tour of Europe, which started before we were normally allowed to break for Christmas, in London. Then across to Paris, through France and onto nearly every country in Europe. I knew all this from Ron's unwelcome update (the ones I thought were over). He said he had read a letter that Ruby had written for Harry.

"Honestly, Ginny, won't you go back to him? This girl is the biggest dunce I have ever seen. She thought Frankfurt was where they made frankfurters, and Hamburg was where they exported hamburgers. And don't even get me started on Nice and Cannes. We have to get rid of her." He sounded so exasperated and desperate.

I slowly, meaningfully (and not even slightly guiltily) shook my head. I didn't even try to look sympathetic. "Harry Potter is a dickhead. There is no way I'm heading back there. Sorry, brother." I patted him mockingly on the back.

When she returned, something happened that made me want to repeat my violent assault from Christmas on both of them. It was in the Great Hall (naturally, where else could everyone see another Ginny Weasley public outburst; it seemed these were becoming a regular thing) and I was minding my own business, eating my curds and whey (lamb and mashed potato really, but you get what I mean) when someone tapped me on my shoulder. I was just about to feed myself another delicious forkful of mashed potato covered in mushroom sauce, being utterly ravenous after a day of hard study and no lunch, so from the outset I knew this conversation was going to be quick one.

When I turned to find that it was in fact Ruby Harish that had interrupted my evening meal, I gave her a quick, curt greeting. "Yes, Harish?"

She gave me a polite smile. "Hi, Ginny, you might not know me, I'm Ruby—"

"I know who you are, and?" I was being rude, but hey, what the hell should I give a damn about this little tart for? She was the harlot that had stolen my boyfriend away from me (not that I really cared anymore, but still, it was the principle, the principle that mattered).

Her smile faltered but she carried on anyway, clearly determined to have her say. "Er, yes, I'm with Harry now and he was telling me about how your family is poor—"

I had to interject there before she said anymore to make me even angrier. First of all the fact that Harry had even spoken about me to her irritated me. Secondly, that he had told her we weren't quite as well of as others made my eye twitch with supressed anger. And to top it all off she had the effrontery to come and discuss it to my face so boldly. Understandably, I was about ready to slap her stupidly smiling face. "Excuse me? He told you _what_?"

She was starting to look worried and slightly afraid now. She took an involuntary step, probably without even realising she had. I didn't blame her; Harry had obviously informed her of his beating a couple of months ago. "He—he told me you and your family didn't have—er—too much money. So, I, erm...Happy Christmas!" She cried frantically, thrusting forward a small horridly neon pink envelope embellished with bright pink moving hearts and stars.

I glanced down at it, wanting to laugh now. She had spelt my name with one 'n' and then, realising her mistake, placed a small extra 'n' in the gap. "What's this?" I took it off her and ripped it open brusquely.

"Well, when Harry told me that you couldn't buy nice things, I thought maybe this might be a nice idea. It's for a shop in London my mother took me too, I—"

Inside the sickeningly dainty envelope was a gift voucher for Witch & Witch Co, a trendy (and ridiculously expensive) fashion store for young witches. It was worth 100 galleons. With this many galleons in my mother's expert hands she could probably feed us for a week. But as much as I would have liked to have accepted it and gone on a once-in-a-lifetime shopping spree, the thought of why I was receiving this and who from made me stuff it back into its pink prison and hand it back. I nearly ripped it into pieces, just to ensure the sentiment was clearly received but then I remember – 100 galleons was a lot of money to be tearing up.

"Who the _hell_ do you think you are?" I shouted vehemently.

Ruby almost looked ready to cry, she didn't quite know how to respond, I guess. "Harry—"

"What's going on?" Harry walked up, just in time to save his new girlfriend. He looked somewhat scared of me as he placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder, looking back and forth between the two of us.

Just what I needed, someone else to be angry at. "I don't where on _earth_ you think you get off telling your slutty little—"

"Hey!" Ruby protested half-heartedly.

"Oh, shut it! How dare you speak about my personal life to this tramp!"

"I never told her that!" He lied hurriedly, trying to escape anymore scolding from me. "She…she assumed!"

I laughed sarcastically, a hoarse mocking cackle. Turning to the blonde dimwit, I then cried: "What an ass of a boyfriend, you have Harish." When all she could do was stutter inanely, I smirked at them both. "You know what, you deserve each other. You're both brainless idiots!"

Before I could storm off angrily, Harry felt he had to say one final thing. And as if to prove my concluding point, he came out with: "Well, that doesn't matter anyway, because I'm dumping her!" He spluttered at me.

"What?" Ruby and I both asked in unison.

Then he realised what he had just said, so thoughtlessly. "Er…er, sorry, Ruby." He added, turning red and looking at her apologetically. Tears welled in her eyes before she fled without another word. Harry turned his gaze to me, almost with a question in his eyes. "Yeah…" He said pathetically.

"Save it, Harry." I said with contempt before I too left the Great Hall.

And so it was. Harry Potter single again and for once probably not one of the most eligible bachelors in the school anymore. He did look considerably unhappy the next morning (much to my satisfaction), especially when Ruby came sauntering in on the arm of a strikingly muscular young lad whom I knew as Stebbins. He was the Hufflepuff team seeker. I had to allow myself a little smile at that. Her subtlety was just admirable.

I had certainly calmed down significantly after last night's proceedings, however later that night in the dormitory when I was raging away, explain the evenings events to Jayda, she commented on my mad outbursts which were happening more and more often. "Ginny, I really think you ought to see somebody about it. Or at least take a bloody chill pill." She laughed as I sighed, frustrated.

"Oh, shut up, Jay. What I really need is for Harry Potter to quit being. I swear that ruddy idiot is the bane of my existence."

I punched her when she laughed at me again. "See? You have a temper problem, girl."

"I do not!" I growled, sitting up and looking outside. "Let's go for a walk."

The letter arrived from T.D. the next morning. I looked at it apprehensively for a few long minutes before finally opening it. Jayda showed a little more restraint this time and waited patiently for my reaction before she herself reacted. It read:

_Ginny,_

_Firstly, thank you for replying. And I can most certainly understand any scepticism or doubts you may have – I'm quite a sceptic myself. I can assure you with as much of my heart and soul as you want that this is real and my feelings are true. There's just something about you that I find so enigmatic and I would love to be your friend._

_For the time being I'd rather not disclose my true identity. I think it would cause quite a stir, and certain people would not be too happy. Would you be content with exchanging letters for a while? I was in the Great Hall when you dished out just desserts for Harry Potter. I must say I was quite impressed. I'm not the biggest fan of his, but then I guess you aren't either. Well, at least that's something we have in common._

_T.D._

So. He didn't like Harry Potter. Well, that certainly narrowed it down a bit. I could at least eliminate most Gryffindors. The way he wrote sparked something inside me that I couldn't quite describe. It certainly was an exhilarating feeling to know there was someone somewhere madly in love with me. His use of the word 'enigmatic' gave me goose bumps. I had never had huge luck or experience with boys (at least no one before Harry Potter) but this feeling of butterflies was a very good feeling.

I passed the letter to Jayda with a small smile on my face and slightly red cheeks. She didn't mock me, but simply gave me a huge excited grin.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

_T.D._

_I think the way that you write is so elegant and mature; I guess that is what interested me the most from your letters. At least, in the search for your identity, I can rule out the younger kids at Hogwarts. I had quite a concern that you were Colin Creevey. Oh, Merlin, you aren't Colin Creevey are you?_

_Anyway, yes we do have a dislike of Harry Potter in common, which I guess is a good way to start any friendship, with the same likes and dislikes. So, aside from that horrid scar-head (and this is going to sound incredibly gay), what kinds of things do you like? I love to read anything I can find in the library. My favourite thing to do is find a good book and read it in the snow outside. I love the snow. Do you prefer winter or summer? I'm going to hazard a guess and say that you're a summer. I can be kooky like that, I think you'll find, I have a bit of a knack for emotions and the supernatural I guess you could say. Sorry if I'm freaking you out, but I suppose that's the benefit of exchanging letters – you can run away from me whenever you like. Trust me, enough people have done it in person I'm sure I'll get used to the pen version._

_Well, I've blathered on enough now, time to sign out and get back to the homework resting unwanted underneath this letter. You don't happen to know anything about Wolfsbane and Hezimpah Cheese Leaves do you? Snape has given us this impossible case study to do. Who even knew cheese could grow on trees?_

_Arh! I ramble yet again. Until next time, T.D!_

_Ginny_

I was quite impressed with my letter-writing skills. I think I was actually improving. Jayda mocked me and laughed at me for the corniness of it all but to me it was rather romantic. I was being optimistic – perhaps this could actually lead to something? Well, I guess it all depended on who this T.D. truly was. I began to obsess just a little bit, speculating on who the mysterious guy could be. Sometimes I found myself rereading his letters, trying to discern some sort of clue or sign that probably didn't even exist.

Well, he did say 'certain people wouldn't be too happy'. Maybe that meant he was a close friend of Harry's, or at least someone he knew and so liking me (Harry's ex-girlfriend) went against the Boy's Strict Moral Code. If that even existed. I made a mental list of all Harry's friends and slowly ticked off each one as a definite no. Seamus Finnigan – absolutely not. He struck me as the slightly stupider, immature kind. Dean Thomas – maybe? He certainly was a possibility but that seemed unlikely. Obviously not Neville Longbottom, with his apparent interest in Luna, which was rather cute. Apart from those three and my brothers and their mates, I didn't know many other males.

It had to be a different House, then. At meal times I would casually look around the Great Hall, quietly observing all members of the opposite sex that were possible candidates. A Ravenclaw kept passing me furtive glances, looking nervous but I was sure he had been doing that since Marcus Flint gave him the hiding of his life last year. I wasn't there, but sources say he was jinxed and hexed a number of times, giving him a permanent twitch in his eye. Poor guy. Could it be him? He caught me staring at him, so as a kind of test I gave him a friendly, coquettish smile. His eye twitched more than I had ever seen it and he went bright red. Then he gave me a look as if to say 'what the hell are you staring at, bitch'. I quickly looked away.

"Ginny, what are you looking at?" Jayda piped in as I continued my study.

I turned back to her and shrugged, slightly embarrassed. "Just looking…" I trailed off, suddenly becoming incredibly interested in a knot of wood in the table.

She knew what, or rather who, I had been searching for. "That's kind of pointless, Gin. He's not exactly going to stand up and say 'oh, gee, I guess you found me, let's make love'." She teased in a gruff imitation of a guy's voice.

I laughed in spite of myself. "I just want to know who he is." I whinged, feeling a lot like a spoilt little girl wanting to know what was inside the present under the tree.

"Just wait it out, I'm sure he'll reveal who he is one day. Or are you two going to have a strictly ink and parchment relationship for the rest of your life?" She brought her hands up, mimicking someone writing. "Do you, Ginny, take T.D. to be your husband? I do." She cracked up into laughter at her joke.

I scowled at her and stabbed at a piece of pumpkin on my plate. "Shut up, Jay. Don't you have somewhere _else_ to be right now?" I asked moodily. Usually she would be gone to spend some more time with Ryan by now. We were like a divorced couple sharing custody – I got mornings and he got evenings.

"Nah, Ryan's got NEWTs to be worrying about tonight. Besides, this is _much_ more fun." She giggled evilly, grabbing some parchment from her bag. "Ooh, here's one." She quickly drew a dreadful drawing of a boy's face and wrote TD underneath. Then she brought the parchment to her lips and starting making oohs and aahs and kissing sounds.

Before I started laughing, which would only encourage her more, I instead let my temper get the better of me and flung a forkful of vegetables at her. They splatted on the parchment and she yelped in surprise. I snorted at her as I stood up to leave, lifting my heavy bag onto my shoulder. "C'mon, maestro." As we walked out together, I cast a quick glance back to see if anyone was watching us. No one was, unsurprisingly. I turned back to Jayda and smirked, tapping my cheek. "You have pumpkin just here. How on earth did that get there, Jayda? You messy eater."

_Ginny,_

_Don't worry, I'm not Colin Creevey so you can be rest-assured there. You should give the search a rest – all in good time, my friend._

_Sorry to burst your bubble but you got me all wrong! I actually prefer the autumn. The colours, the crunch of leaves underfoot and the slight bite of colder temperatures that let you know winter is on the way. But you were close!_

_I'm pretty sure Snape gave us that assignment last year. I think there's a book in the Restricted Section of the library by someone called Raux. Have a look, it should help a bit. I hated that case study. Cheese on trees? It makes absolutely no sense at all._

_Do you like to fly? I like to get on a broom at least a few times a week and get out there into the sky. The feeling of the wind on your face and seeing everything so far below you is unsurpassable. Are you a member of any clubs or groups? Personally, I think they're all gay and nerdy except Quidditch (of course). One of my friends joined the Chess Club the other day but I managed to talk him out of it with my wand. He managed to attend one meeting but couldn't really understand half of what went on. I think he only joined so he could see more of this girl he has his eye on. If you are in a club, maybe I should join too._

_Well, it's getting close to 2am now (I couldn't sleep) and, as you probably already figured out, I have had NEWTs thrust upon me by most all of my teachers to get me ready for next year. So, yes, I am in sixth year. It is all so tedious but necessary (I suppose)._

_Goodnight, Miss Weasley._

_T.D._

The thrill I felt whenever I received one of his letters was like nothing I had ever felt before. Being wooed and courted was new to me too; when Harry had declared his love for me at the beginning of last year I had practically melted into his arms. I had already been in love with him since I was younger and it was as if my lifelong dream had come true. Now, though, it made me feel incredibly special and excited. I still wondered what it was about me that he liked so much and how he could know that he was so deeply in love with someone like this.

Love, to me, was caring for someone and wanting spend as much as time as possible with them just for their company. T.D. had never met me – how could know that I was the one he wanted? Sometimes I thought maybe it was a purely physical attraction. Then I realised I should not flatter myself so much.

Jayda thought she was the most clever person around, for she came up with an annoying little nickname for my admirer, which unfortunately seemed to stick. It had come about when she was once again making fun of the letters. It also happened in the presence of her boyfriend, Ryan, who seemed rather slow at times. I couldn't help thinking with amusement what a perfect match for Ruby Harish he would be. Yes, he was definitely good looking. And, I suppose, he had some measure of wits about him but a lot of the time my sarcasm and teases went straight over his head. When Jayda created the nickname, I came up with one of my own for her own beau. _Airhead_. Because everything seemed to go in one ear and out the other. Not surprisingly, she was not impressed.

"How's things going with T.D. anyway? I still can't get over that stupid name, Gin. It's just too gay." She complained as the three of us walked from the Astronomy Tower slowly down through the ancient castle to the dungeons where Snape awaited us. Ryan had his next lesson free so he had met up with Jayda so he could walk her to class.

"It's fine, we're still writing letters to each other. And I do apologise for his lack of a name that doesn't suit your tastes. I'm sure he could have done better but I like it just fine." I retorted coolly, starting to get slightly irked by her constant ridicule of my letters.

Jayda sniffed, unperturbed by my remark. "It's got no ring to it. T.D. T.D. T.D." She started repeating it over and over, getting faster as she did. Then she suddenly gasped dramatically, a humorous glint in her eye and a bursting smile on her face. "Teddy!"

Even as I groaned and rolled my eyes, she cackled wildly, thoroughly impressed with herself. I eyed her warily, a little concerned for her mental health. "Must you?"

She finished laughing and, wiping a tear of mirth from the corner of her eye, she tapped Ryan on his arm, who had been observing our entire conversation in silence, and looked at him questioningly, still grinning stupidly. "What d'you think, Ryan? It's good, right?"

He shrugged and reached his arm around her shoulders. "If you really want my honest opinion, I think you're crazy." He grinned as Jayda scowled playfully at him and I noticed his smile was considerably lopsided, which only further increased his cute, pretty-boy good looks.

I nodded at his response smugly. "Thank you, Ryan, that's exactly what I think too."

For the rest of the day Jayda took to calling me Teddy, Teddy's Girl or Teddy Bear. At one point she began chanting it loudly as I struggled to ignore her, doing my best to concentrate solely on chopping the blasted cheese leaves that Snape had us studying so rigorously. I didn't have to snap at her though, only snicker when she got so loud that the Potions professor came striding angrily over to our table, slammed down a huge textbook (which, I realised with a silent groan, was all about the nefarious Hezimpah Cheese Leaves) and eyed Jayda fiercely. She visibly quivered under his intense gaze.

"Leave my classroom immediately, Miss Brown, and do not return until you have written out, word for word, the entire first volume. And when you do return, Miss Brown, make sure you leave the immature, boisterous yelling outside." He sneered at her as she quickly grabbed some parchment and the heavy textbook and sidled out of the classroom. Snape turned his withering gaze on me, looking at me with contempt. All the other students were watching with breaths held for what he would do next. "And if I hear any nonsense at all from you, Weasley, you will suffer a similar fate as your juvenile companion."

He straightened and walked slowly back to the front of his classroom, looking around at them all. "What are you all gawking at? Get back to work."


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi everyone, I would love to get some reviews and feedback on what you all think so far! Constructive criticism is much appreciated :) I've also got some really good chapters planned so keep reading.**

**Chapter 9**

Sitting in Transfiguration staring mindlessly out the window was proving to be a most rewarding exercise. I hadn't heard from Teddy (alas, I did find myself agreeing with Jayda later that week that Teddy was indeed an easier name to say, albeit a rather silly one) in over a week and life returned to its usual tedium. I still obsessed unnaturally over who he was. He filled my thoughts more often than not, thus resulting in my inattentiveness in just about every class. I found that the lessons went by marginally faster when I wasn't paying any attention and I was instead running through in my head every single sixth-year I had ever met.

Professor McGonagall was yammering on about something that I did not really care about. When would I ever need to know how to transfigure a goldfish into a doorknob? If ever I had a broken doorknob, wouldn't it be better to simply go out and buy a new one rather than turn to my innocent goldfish and think 'Hm, this makes much more sense!'. I allowed myself a small inward snort of derisive laughter at my clever clever wit. I really thought sometimes that I was much too conceited for my own good.

In the seat next to mine, Jayda was barely alive. Her eyelids drooped dangerously low over her eyes and she was slumped precariously on the edge of her seat. I smirked, sorely tempted to give her the tiniest of pushes and send her crashing to the floor. As much as I wanted to, I refrained - it would probably land us both in McGonagall's bad books. Jayda had been doodling love hearts and little stick figures on the corner of her text book. Along the bottom she had written what I could only assume was song lyrics from some unknown Muggle band that she liked. I couldn't stand the way she sketched and scribbled all through her books. On occasion she would try and add a little star or face on my own, but I would slap (sometimes bite at) her hand to stop her. She soon learnt her lesson.

I looked away from the slumbering form of my best friend and let my eyes wander around the room. Colin Creevey was at the table next to mine, alone. Seeing him reminded me of Teddy and how I had thought that my secret admirer was perhaps him. On the off chance that Teddy had told a lie to put me off his scent, I reached over when McGonagall's back was turned and tapped Colin on his arm discreetly.

He flicked his head towards me and raised his eyebrows, looking somewhat annoyed. "What is it?" He hissed.

Rather cryptically, I asked: "Are you T.D.?" Inside, I realised how ridiculous I must have sounded.

Colin frowned and looked at me as if I was nuts. He shook his head and quickly returned his gaze to the professor at the front of the class.

Well, it was worth a try. Why would Teddy need to lie to me anyway? We'd been exchanging letters for a few weeks now and in that short time I had somehow come to trust him. I believed every word he wrote in his graceful hand. Some might say that was rather naïve of me but there was just _something_, I don't know what it was, but something that I saw that was genuine. The emotion and feeling that he put into his letters was much too raw. No one could lay open their soul like that and admit their feelings so openly without it being sincere. Then again, if it was Colin Creevey he could have easily feigned ignorance. But why would he?

Confident in the fact that my investigative skills had revealed that Colin was indeed not my secret admirer, I focused my attention on the tall, rigid figure of Professor McGonagall at the front of the class. She was holding her wand pointed at a large tank full of unknowing goldfish. On the table in front of her were several different styles and sizes of doorknobs. "Now, it is important to visualise the type of doorknob you want. As well as size, wood type, etc. What about locks? For a doorknob's main purpose is to open a door, of course, one may wish for that door to be locked. That's what makes this type of transfiguration so tricky. Pay attention!" She snapped, seeing Jayda snoozing lazily in her chair.

I sniggered as Jayda snapped to attention, sitting up rigidly in her chair. "Sorry, Professor." She barked.

McGonagall's eyes narrowed and her lips pursed. "Miss Brown, I'm sure I don't need to remind you _again _of your upcoming OWLs, do I? Now, _pay attention_."

_Teddy,_

_Yes, I am very sorry to inform you that my friend Jayda has decided to give you a new name. She thinks it's a lot better than T.D. and I guess, until you tell me what T.D. stands for (this is me blackmailing you, by the way, just in case you didn't realise) then I see it fit to call you Teddy for as long as it takes._

_I know it seems crazy to think, but I really am coming around to this idea of letter writing. I already like you plenty after a few weeks of communication! How long do you think it would be before we could meet? Or at least until you can tell me who you are? If you want to meet, we could do it in private, somewhere discreet where no one can see us…Okay I just read that back and it is not intended to sound dirty __**at all**__. Thank you!_

_I can't believe I got your season wrong, I wasn't even kind of close. I'm usually so tuned it with that. Okay, I need to guess something else about you. Your favourite colour…blue? I'm seeing like an aqua-ey green-blue right now. Close? You know you could always lie and tell me that I am close just to save injuring my feelings? _

_So, do you have any family at Hogwarts or is it just you? Any annoying older brothers or sisters? Obviously, you already know about my siblings, as bothersome as they are, I still love them. What about your parents, what do they do? Jayda and I were talking about you the other day, she suggested your family were Death Eaters. I slapped her. I would absolutely __**die**__ if they were. I'm sorry, but I'm not even going to ask if they actually are. And if you reply saying they are then…well that would be the end of that._

_But enough of such dark subjects, I'm sure your parents are Ministry officials or some other form of inspiring career hounds. What do you plan on doing when you graduate here? I like the idea of following in my father's footsteps, going into the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts. But that seems much to boring for me. I want to explore the world, maybe I could be an international reporter. I'd love to go and see all the different wizarding schools. Have you ever been to France or Europe or any place like that?_

_Time to sign out. I have once again been neglecting my homework while I sit here and tell you my life story._

_Ginny._

Sometimes when I re-read my letters, I couldn't help but think how self-absorbed and vain they were. But then, he wanted to get to know me. How else was I supposed to do that? I had to give him as many details about myself as I could, while at the same time ask for more information about him. I already found myself liking him more and more with every letter. It seemed slightly ridiculous, considering I had never even met him, but I think it was the air of mystery that surrounded him that made me like him more.

We gradually exchanged more and more letters and by the time March rolled around (and with it horrible gusty gales and sheets and sheets of torrential rain for days on end) I had a nice little stack of envelopes in my trunk. Jayda had bought me a pretty deep purple ribbon from a shop in Hogsmeade and with it I tied the bundle together, adding each letter as it came. Our letters were turning to fluff a lot of the time – I was freely admitting that I had developed feelings for him. I couldn't stop the feelings that were blossoming slowly inside me. When I wasn't writing a letter to him, or reading one of his, I was thinking about nothing but when the next one would arrive or what I would be saying to him when I had a free moment.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

A tiny, miniscule nodule of resentment arose somewhere inside me. I noticed it one morning as I read Teddy's latest letter. I didn't exactly want it to be there, and I did my best to squash it down and away before it was able to fester inside me and turn to anger. It was my fault anyway – every letter I wrote, I always asked when we would be able to meet and when he would reveal his true identity. He never answered me. And so I resented him for it. I wanted so badly to just see him, talk to him, hear his voice, _touch_ him. I needed to see that he was real.

He was keeping exactly what I wanted away from me. Didn't he want to see me too? Wasn't he feeling the exact same feelings as me? Surely, he must have been yearning to talk to me in person for years. Was he teasing me? Before I knew it, the knot of resentment had grown in size severely, like a tumour growing inside me. Sucking any joy out of life until all I could think was _why_ this boy I so desperately liked was being so cruel? When April came knocking on Hogwarts' door and brought spring along with it, I awoke one morning to a sunny sky outside. My mood was just about ready to strangle spring's throat and spit on its mangled remains.

Jayda got up in an outrageously cheerful mood. She was dressed and bouncing on the end of my bed madly before I was even fully awake. I scowled moodily at her.

"What's got your knickers in a twist?" She asked as I hauled myself out of bed and headed for the shower.

"I'm going to do it today." I stated firmly. To the unknowing onlooker, this would have been an incredibly cryptic comment. Or a raunchy dirty one. But Jayda and I had been debating this for a few days now. I had told her how much I wanted to meet Teddy and how every single time I asked him, he either ignored the question completely or admonished me with a very firm 'no.'

Her eyes widened and she followed me into the bathroom, trying to step in front of me so she could look straight at me. "No. No, no, no."

"Yes! Absolutely yes! I've had enough of him, Jayda. I'm going to get angry. I'm going to demand a name, at the bare minimum. If I have the guts I'll demand a meeting place and time for next weekend too." I reached into the shower cubicle and turned it on to hot and shut the door again as I waited for it to heat up.

Jayda was still in the room. "You are not, Ginny. What if he gets angry in return? What if he tells you to go jump? This is very risky territory."

I put my hands on my hips and frowned at her. "First of all, he would not tell me to go jump. Secondly, this is my decision and I am going to get results. And last of all, I need to have a shower now, so get out."

She sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes before leaving the bathroom.

At lunch time I found a quiet spot outside and sat down with a piece of parchment, some ink and a quill. I had calmed down somewhat since the morning but I was still in a rather dark mood. I pondered for a few minutes about what I would write and how I should start. I began with the simple word 'Teddy'. After that I was at a loss for what to write. My gaze lifted and wandered around the courtyard I was in and out over the view of the Forbidden Forest, searching for some kind of inspiration.

Just as I sighed, frustrated, Draco Malfoy walked through the courtyard with yet another girl clinging to his arm. He spotted me and narrowed his eyes evilly. He had yet to forget that time in the library months ago when I was spying on him (completely innocently and accidentally). They walked past me, intentionally coming closer just to pass some sarcastic insult. The girl on his arm turned out to be Pansy Parkinson.

She sneered at me, giving me a look of disgust. "Writing in your diary, Weasley? Of course you are, it must be your only friend." She screeched with laughter.

Malfoy's upper lip curled slightly as he smirked at me. "Come on, Pansy. Let's leave the Muggle-loving social reject to her thoughts. We've got better things to be doing." As he said it, he reached down and gave her a playful slap on her behind.

I just about threw up. "Make sure you use protection. We wouldn't want little ugly babies running around with your fat nose, Parkinson, or Malfoy's spineless cowardice. It would be far too cruel, they'd just have to be put down."

Both the Slytherin's faces turned beetroot red in anger. Malfoy made to turn and walk away. His girlfriend, however, clearly wanted to stay and continue this affair. Just as she opened her large mouth to offer some kind of retort, a random wind blew through the courtyard and picked up the piece of parchment addressed to Teddy that was sitting on my lap. The fierce wind played with our hair, whipped at our robes and tossed the parchment about like a toy before finally face-planting it on Draco Malfoy's gobsmacked face.

I let out a laugh as the wind died away and Malfoy peeled the letter off his face. He did not look very happy at all, which made it all the more funny. Even Pansy Parkinson cackled shrilly. "Ha! Even your diary doesn't want to be your friend!"

The two of them looked at the parchment with the word 'Teddy' on it and burst into derisive laughter at me. Then it was my turn to turn red. I didn't have any witty comeback. I was too embarrassed to even come up with a decent swear word to hurt their pride. So I said: "Fuck off." Somewhat pathetically. Malfoy crumpled the parchment into a ball and threw it at me before they both walked away, still howling with laughter.

If I didn't have the will to write an angry letter before the two of them had appeared, I certainly did now. With several angry huffs and grumbles, I retrieved the ball of parchment from under the bench I was on and spread it out, trying to smooth it down enough so that I could write on it.

_I want answers. This will probably be the shortest letter from me you've ever received. You will reply to me with your name and a place for us to meet. I can suggest Jemima's Café in Hogsmeade next Saturday afternoon. But that's just an idea._

_Ginny_

I read it over again many times before I slipped it into an envelope and wrote his name on the front. As always, the solemn black owl was waiting patiently in the Owlery when I got up there. He stared at me with serious black eyes as I slipped the letter into his beak. He made a quiet hooting noise as I stroked him on his head. Then he opened his wings and took off into the sky. I watched him glide through the air effortlessly. He swooped around several times, as if he was showing off like he knew I was admiring him. Then he sped off over the Forbidden Forest until I couldn't see him anymore. He always took a different route every time; probably Teddy's attempt at stopping me from tracking him down. That annoyed me too. I wasn't about to follow the owl somehow. Why couldn't he trust me now? Never mind the fact that Jayda and I had tried to do exactly that with the Boyfriend Tracker on my very first letter, but that was beside the point.

I leant on the windowsill of the Owlery, watching as the Hogwarts world ticked by below me and thinking about how much I had changed since that wretch Harry Potter had left me. I was quite a different girl. I no longer depended on him for my happiness. I was independent. In a way, Harry's rejection of me set me free. It was a blessing in disguise. Even though it had taken me six months to realise that fact, I still smiled and said a silent thank you to the Boy Who Lived. The bastard.


	11. Chapter 11

**Reviews are most welcome, pleeeease! :) I know it's a short one but the next few promise to be longer and very very juicy so keep r&r-ing!**

**Chapter 11**

Harry Potter. Harry. Potter. . I had said it before and I would no doubt say it countless times again and again. Harry Potter, the bane of my existence. The sour milk in my tea. The annoying lump in my mattress. The cursed sting and itch of sunburn after a long day at the beach. I had a feeling he would forever be floating around in the background of my life, ready to pounce and irritate and worsen my day whenever he could. Not with any real ill intentions, of course not, but with an ignorance that maddened me to no end. He got to me without even realising what he was doing. And thanks to my wonderful brother, I would never be rid of him.

Two days after I sent the angry letter off to Teddy was a Saturday. A Hogsmeade Saturday. Jayda left early in the morning to spend the entire day with her Ravenclaw lover. They were going to have breakfast together, then Ryan would take her shopping, a long walk together and then lunch in Hogsmeade. That left me rather lonely, but I didn't mind. After a late breakfast I decided to go to Hogsmeade on my own and have a walk through the little village. The time to myself was what I always enjoyed. It was relaxing and calming.

This trip, however, turned out to be probably the least relaxing walk I had ever taken through Hogsmeade. All because of the Boy Who Lived.

Around lunchtime I was strolling happily along, hardly a care in the world, enjoying the gentle sunlight streaming down into the village. All of a sudden I was pulled aside by some unseen force. The unseen force yanked me rather powerfully behind a row of shrubs bordering someone's cottage. I just about screamed in surprise, thinking for a second that I was being kidnapped and was about to be raped and tortured and murdered. In broad daylight. With hundreds of Hogwarts students and Hogsmeade dwellers around. And in front of someone's house.

"What the hell!" I exclaimed, looking around me wildly, searching for the source of my abduction.

Harry Potter suddenly appeared, holding his invisibility cloak. He smiled rather sheepishly, which quickly disappeared as he saw my disgruntled face. I whacked him on his upper arm, annoyed. "Hey!" He protested, wincing under my blow.

"What the hell are you doing, Harry?" I half-yelled, feeling thoroughly put out. I already had a feeling that my day was about to be completely and utterly ruined.

"Sorry, Gin. I just wanted to talk to you alone for a minute." He folded the cloak away into his bag as he spoke.

I frowned, getting more and more annoyed by the second. "Why couldn't you have just walked up to me and asked me? You didn't have to snatch me away behind a bush. And what's with the cloak?"

His face reddened slightly as he shrugged. "Dunno…I just thought you wouldn't want to talk to me otherwise."

My glare softened a little at that. I guess I didn't have to be angry at him all the time. Even if he was the biggest idiot at Hogwarts. "Well, what is it?" I said brusquely, crossing my arms. I had a very _very_ bad feeling about this. If he was going to say something totally ridiculous, maybe being cold and aloof and indignant would put him off.

I was wrong. "Er…well, I may as well just say it…um, well, we—that is to say, _I_, er…"

Couldn't this boy at least string a few coherent words together? I sighed impatiently. "Spit it out, Harry!"

He looked down at his feet now, hands in his pockets looking like a five-year-old boy who had been caught stealing cookies. Kicking at the ground, he mumbled quietly. Something about a dove feud? When he looked back up at me to see what my response would be, he was bright red in the face. "So...what do you think?" He asked softly.

Getting completely frustrated now, I nearly shouted at him. "I didn't understand a single word you said, Harry. Speak up, stop mumbling, just sa—"

"I still love you."

I stopped, utterly gobsmacked. I stood there for several seconds, mouth wide open, staring at him. He still loved me? After all these months, after Ruby Harish and the tissues at Christmas and dumping Ruby so cruelly and publicly, here he was declaring his love for me again. What the hell did he expect of me? To burst in to tears and tell him I still loved him too? Was he really mentally unstable, as I had always thought all along? "_What_?" I asked him, just to make sure I had heard him correctly.

"I still love you, Ginny. I was thinking that…that we should get back together. What d'you say?" He sounded so hopeful. So confident and sure of himself. I wanted to growl in fury and slap his stupid smiling face.

But I didn't. Instead I took a deep breath, in and out. I allowed the rage inside me to ease out, to float away on the wind. At first, I hadn't the faintest idea what I was going to say to him. Explain how much I detested him now? Let him know how much he had killed me inside when he left me for Ruby? Tell him about Teddy? Then I decided that he didn't deserve any form of an explanation. I didn't owe him a single thing. I could return the favour, leave him hanging, wondering why. Now _he_ could see what it felt like to have your soul crushed and feel it crumble away to nothing inside of you until you feel utterly worthless, less than worthless. The lowest of lows.

I took another deep breath. "No, Harry. Goodbye." Before I could even see what his reaction was, I had turned and extricated myself from the shrubs and was walking away. I could hear him stuttering behind me.

"Ginny, wait! Please!" He called desperately.

Before I knew it he was running after me. He yanked on my shoulder to turn me around. "For God's sake, Harry, just leave me alone!"

He looked like he was ready to cry. "Please, Ginny, I don't understand."

I closed my eyes for a few seconds, mustering up the courage to ignore the urge that was welling up inside me to punch him square in the face. When I opened them, I almost wanted to laugh at how pathetic he looked. So desperate and needy. "You're not supposed to." It was the vagueness of my statement that I was pleased with the most. I smirked at him and walked away for good, feeling impressed with myself. I had shown him. And I didn't even raise a single fist. I couldn't help but emit a little victory yell with glee as soon as I was out of his earshot.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

I waited for what seemed like years for Teddy to reply to me. Everyday crept by at a snail's pace and I was left waiting and wondering and worrying. Had Jayda been right? I had pushed him away, hadn't I? I should never have been so pushy or mean. Now I had nothing left. The weekend I had suggested for the two of us meeting came and went and instead of sitting in a boutique café with the boy I liked, I could instead be found sitting in the library, clutching a quill as I scribbled out essay after essay for different classes. I really had this awful feeling that I wasn't going to pass my OWLs. I had been so busy worrying about other things that I had let my studies slide away to nothing.

Jayda was feeling the same as me, but I knew that she had nothing to worry about. She rarely ever studied but always seemed to ace any test or exam. I despised her for it. So, I was alone in the library, going over notes from the beginning of the year (which barely existed, probably because I had been traumatised at the time by Harry Potter, and I barely paid any attention). I was getting incredibly frustrated with myself. How had I let myself slip so much? For the entire weekend and many to come I was glued to the library seat, making sure I knew everything that I could possibly know about anything.

My hand cramped up painfully and I dropped my quill quickly, clutching my wrist as I tried to twist and flex the ache away. Jayda entered the library and sat down next to me, placing her books and parchment on the table next to me. "Cramp." I muttered, wincing as it slowly abated. I sighed with relief as the pain left my hand.

"You should give yourself a break, Gin. You're going to be fine." Jayda advised, sounding far too lax for my liking. She opened a book called 'Planes, Cars and the Lightbulb – 1001 Useless Muggle Inventions'. Muggle Studies was one of the classes that we weren't taking together. I didn't really understand why she was taking it – she was Muggle-born, so surely she had to already know everything there was about Muggles.

"I have to catch up. I'm never going to pass anything if I don't study and revise. The exams are only a month away, Jayda! Besides, it helps me to keep my mind off Teddy." I added, feeling glum. Then I picked up my quill again and returned to the piles of parchment in front of me.

"Still haven't heard from him, huh?" She asked, with pity in her voice.

I didn't look up to answer, but kept my head down and pretended to be concentrating deeply on the list of plants with healing qualities I was writing out in front of me. "No." I tried to feign indifference, but I think she realised how much it was hurting.

Finally, after over two weeks, I received a letter from Teddy that sent my heart racing a million beats a second. I didn't quite know whether it was relief, happiness, anxiety and a mixture of all three. My hands started sweating as I clutched it in my grasp. I decided to hold on to it all day, I didn't want to react in the Great Hall in front of everyone. So, I kept it safely in my pocket until after dinner, when I at last got a moment to be alone. I sat on my bed in the dormitory, staring at the letter apprehensively. It stared back at me, lifeless. After much thinking and staring (mostly on my part), I slid it open and pulled the piece of parchment out.

_Ginny,_

_I'm sorry I have taken so long to reply. This was the most difficult letter I have written. I understand how frustrated you must feel and I am deeply sorry to have been the cause of this. But, I've decided that you're right. We should meet. First, to clear the air between us, I would like to propose an idea. Since you sometimes like to play the detective, as you've told me, I think I should give you a clue in every letter. Something about me or my Hogwarts House or something like that. If you don't like that idea then just say so, and instead we can arrange somewhere to meet up. I just think it would be something fun for us to do._

_TD_

At first, I wanted to react with indignation and be annoyed. Why did he have to be so stupid, bloody clues and whatnot? I nearly scribbled on the back of the letter and stormed out to the Owlery. Then, after properly considering what he had suggested I decided it wouldn't be so bad. He was right, it would be something fun and good to clear the air, especially after my angry letter. And it would be quite interesting, I suppose, to hear these different things about him. It would add to the mystery that surrounded him while at the same time it was working to clear the secrecy away.

I wrote him a reply, heavy with apologies and thanks for still wanting to write to me. And I told him how excited I was to find out who he was, finally. If I could discern it from his clues, anyway. But I was feeling pretty confident about that. I smiled to myself. This _was_ fun. Harry would never have ever thought to do something so exciting to liven up our relationship. I was happy again!

Just as the smile I was wearing turned to a grin, Jayda walked into the dormitory looking tired. She saw my wide grin and the letter in my hand and a knowing smile crossed her face. "Well?" She asked, dumping her things on her bed and hurrying across to mine to read the letter.

I gave it to her, still smiling. "I'm so excited." I said, watching her face as she read first his letter and then my reply. "What's wrong?"

She was frowning. "This guy is screwed up, Gin. Why couldn't he just tell you his name? Why did he have to do this stupid detective-clue thing?" She dropped the letters back on my bed looked at me, sceptical.

"What are you thinking? He's just trying to be fun. I think it's cute." I said crossly, folding my arms.

She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "It just sounds dodgy, is all. It's weird. There's been something not right about this guy ever since he started writing to you." She stood up and walked back to her bed and started sorting the things in her bag.

"Well, I like him. I think he's amazing and funny and—" I started protesting, feeling thoroughly put out by her comments.

She put up her hand to stop me. "Look, Ginny, I know how you feel about him, you don't need to explain it to me. I just think he's weird, and that's my opinion, which I'm entitled to, okay? So just stop going on about him. I guess we'll both just have to wait and see what he says about himself." She turned her back to me and returned to her bag.

I opened and closed my mouth several times, feeling like there was something I needed to retort with. When I realised there wasn't really anything I could say – Jayda's statement had been pretty much justified – I said rather pathetically, "Whatever." I heard her sniff with what must have been amusement and I imagined that she had rolled her eyes at me.

Choosing to ignore her for the rest of the evening, I finished my reply to Teddy and left to take it to the Owlery. Once I had sent it off, I made my way to the library, my second home. There, I started my revision for Charms. I found it easiest to use lists. I wrote the same lists over and over, sometimes nearly 100 times, to make sure I had it engrained inside my head. It was also kind of a numbing process too. I scrawled the spells out onto the parchment until all that existed around me was that list. When I looked up after an hour or so, I half expected the students walking around the library to be giant walking, talking words.

I spotted Jayda walking towards me and I quickly resumed my therapeutic list-writing. She sat down next to me and I kept writing. "I'm sorry if I snapped at you, Ginny." I stopped writing but didn't look at her yet. "I'm just really exhausted from all this bloody studying and OWLs and stupid Ryan is too busy to pay any attention to me at all, all he can talk about are his NEWTs. And he's not even taking the exams until next year."

I put my quill down and looked up at her. Now that we were nearer, I realised how tired and haggard she really did look. I guess the upcoming exams were really having more of an effect on her than I thought. "It's okay. Do you wanna go down to the kitchens with me and we can scrounge some food? They probably have loads of that crumbed chicken left from dinner." Her face brightened at the mention of food and we packed our things and headed down through the castle.

The next morning there was a letter from Teddy. I smiled as the black owl dropped it in front of me. The letter held the usual discussion of events and things that we often talked about. Then, at the end, just when I thought he wasn't going to add his clue, there was a single sentence before he signed off.

_I share several classes with your brother._


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

By the time OWLs week rolled around, I had a nice little collection of clues. I still wasn't any closer to discovering who he was, though.

_I share several classes with your brother._

_I have blonde hair._

_TD stands for The Dragon. _(I couldn't help but snigger at that one).

_I passed all of my OWLs last year with O._

_I was born in Wiltshire._

_I have blue eyes._

_We have met many times in person, and several times this year._

_The black owl is called Hades and his line has been in my family for generations._

_I have no siblings._

_I love you._

I accosted my brother the day after I received the first clue, asking him who was in his classes, which ones he shared with other houses and for a list of all their names. It turned out there were at least 50 young men in different classes with him. So that clue sucked.

At least half of the sixth-years, I noted one day, had blonde hair. I actually started counting one afternoon at lunch but I lost count at around 100. Besides, it's very difficult to tell who is in what year just from looking at them. A small short little runt might have been small for his age and actually been in seventh-year. Likewise, a tall giant brute whom I thought would have been at least sixth-year might actually only be in his second year at Hogwarts. The second clue sucked, also.

A nickname like 'The Dragon' could have come from anywhere. Dragons were brave and mighty, which meant he could possibly be a Gryffindor. They could also be clever and conniving, traits of a Slytherin. Perhaps it was some family emblem or insignia, in which case it would be rather difficult to track down. Or it was maybe just some nickname that his friends had given him. It was useless extra information. Just as knowing that he passed his OWLs with Os was equally useless. And being born in Wiltshire was of no use to me either. Suck, suck, and suck.

Blue eyes. That was something I could possibly work with. Adding that to the blonde hair gave me a little bit more to work with. But it was rather difficult to see what colours people's eyes were – I would have to get up very close and have a good look. I doubted many guys would allow me to do that without wondering if something was wrong with my mental health. And enough people suspected that already. Another suck.

It frustrated me to think that Teddy and I had spoken or even encountered each other without me realising that it was actually him. To have gotten so close and been totally oblivious made me want to punch something. I tried to think of everyone I had ever met that had blonde hair and blue eyes and was obviously very smart (to have gotten all Os) and was a dragon. The only person that came close was Colin Creevey. But there was no way that he could ever have gotten the nickname Dragon. The most ultimate suck of them all.

I could care less what the stupid owl's name was or how long his family had had him. What a ridiculous name for an owl anyway. Wasn't Hades the God of death or something? Just delightful. The owl and being an only-child ruled out Colin Creevey anyhow – a Muggle family like his would never have kept owls and I knew for a fact he had his younger brother Dennis. Every clue sucked, bar the last one.

The last had caught me entirely by surprise. I received that letter the day before OWLs started, which made it incredibly hard to concentrate on my exams. He loved me? It sort of shocked me into realising that maybe I had similar feelings for him. At least, they were growing anyway, still forming, like a seed slowly emerging into a rose. Maybe one day I would love him too. I just had to watch out for the thorns.

It made it very to study. I had to ignore the letters. I left the ones with clues in a separate pile from the rest, right next to my pillow. I read them most nights, and it became quite a relaxing exercise that helped me to sleep, when all I was thinking about was spells, plants, curses, stars, creatures, runes and goodness knows what else.

It came as no surprise, then, when I actually completed the exams that I worried that I had done dismally. My mind was fuddled every time I tried to think of whatever the question was referring to. I botched up the practical parts of the exams terribly. Jayda, of course, raced through everything with top marks. The day finally came when we were finished with it all. It was a hot, sunny day. We sat outside by the lake with our shoes and socks off, dipping our toes in the cool water.

Just down the shore from us, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil had stripped down to a singlet top and skirt, looking like gorgeous models as they sunbathed. I couldn't help but eavesdrop on their conversation. Lavender was saying something about the End of Year Ball. "It's totally ridiculous. I can't believe they would do that to us. I mean, I already have my dress and shoes on order. Now I'll have to get everything rearranged."

"I know! To announce something like that, so close when the Ball is actually happening. It doesn't leave much time to get things sorted. Where on earth are we supposed to find a mask like that from anyway? I'll have to get mum to get a couple for Padma and me and send them in. I hope she sends it in time."

They both sounded incredibly frustrated. Jayda and I looked at each other, as if we were both questioning the other about what the two girls were talking about. Then we both shrugged at the same time, which caused us to laugh out loud. Lavender and Parvati looked over at us. "What are you guys talking about?" Jayda called. Sometimes she had absolutely no tact, whatsoever.

Lavender sighed dramatically. "Haven't you two heard? They just announced that the End of Year Ball is now going to be a masquerade. If you guys have your dresses ready, you'd better make sure you can find a mask to match. Stupid teachers."

Then they both dissolved into further mindless chatter about dresses and masks and how on earth the world could still be turning when such a catastrophic thing had happened. Jayda and I laughed to each other quietly, dying to make fun of them both. We saved it for a later time when they weren't within hearing distance.

"Anyway, has Airhead asked you to go with him yet?" I asked as I picked a blade of grass that was growing in between the stones and began to shred it lengthways.

Jayda shook her head, ignoring the use of the epithet. "I don't really care either way, to be honest. It's just a stupid ball." She looked away as she spoke, and I knew that part of her was dying to spend the night dancing away with her boyfriend. She just didn't want to admit it to me (and perhaps herself) that she wanted to do something that we would usually mock.

"I could talk to him, if you want? I'll get him to ask you, easy. I'll just have to make sure I use small, simple words and talk slowly." I added with humour and she smiled.

"You're not funny." She admonished with a contradictory laugh. "Would you, though? But what are you going to do – if I go? You and Teddy still haven't met yet."

"Don't remind me. I still haven't figured out his blasted clues yet. He hasn't even told me what house he's in. He's just teasing me."

"Well, why don't you suggest to him that you two meet up at the ball? Tell him he needs to give you more clues or something."

"I was kind of hoping that _he_ would come up with that idea. I am the girl, after all, and it's the guy that should do the asking."

I figured Jayda was right, though. The ball would be a good place for Teddy – or rather, The Dragon – and I to meet. But he had to ask me. Part of me had a feeling that that was what he was going to do. It would be incredibly romantic and I actually had a quiet yearning to dress up and look beautiful and dance the slow dance with Teddy. Of course, I would have to track down a dress somehow.

As if she was following my train of thought, Jayda perked up. "I can get you a dress, Ginny. We can go shopping next weekend. I've seen a shop in Hogsmeade that sells ball gowns."

I felt a thrill of excitement. "And we could buy some material and jewels and ribbons and make our own masks." We both began our own conversation about colours and dresses and such. We hadn't even been asked to go yet. But we both knew.

Later that evening I managed to track Airhead down and told him to make sure he asked Jayda to the ball. He told me he wasn't even going to go, but I made sure he got the point of it. Let it be noted that I did not use violence at this meeting either. I was getting much better. He asked Jayda within pretty much a few hours. She was ecstatic that evening; she actually stood on her bed and started jumping up and down, yelping and whooping. I just laughed at her, with a silent pang of envy.

The envy was unnecessary, as I found out a couple of days later at breakfast.

_Ginny,_

_I'm guessing you were a little startled by my last clue. I didn't mean to scare you but it is true. But now I have a question for you. My clues weren't exactly helpful, I know, so we can instead meet up at the ball, if you would like? Just let me know if you would like to go with me._

_TD_

I smiled to myself as I read the letter. I wrote a quick reply on the back of it – YES – and left my bowl of cereal as I raced out and up to the Owlery to get it sent off. Hades was waiting for me. How he had managed to get from the Great Hall and back up to the tower so quickly was beyond me. Now that I looked at him, I imagined I could see a darkness behind his black eyes. Perhaps he deserved the name. He did have bits of red feathers speckled over his wings, the eerie look of blood from his latest kill. Then I blinked and he was back to the normal, silent black owl he had always been. He hooted as he flew away.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Jayda and I spent a few hours in Hogsmeade trying dresses on. The shop, Berrypool Gowns, was incredibly busy – full of stressed girls trying to change their dress orders to match their masks, fluffing about over sizes and increased waistlines and colours. Ms Berrypool, the lady that owned the shop, was sitting at a stool in the window, sipping calmly on a coffee as she watched the mass hysteria take place in front of her. Her assistant, Flaviana, was the one trying to help everyone out.

We stood in the doorway when we got there, looking gobsmacked. It was absolute chaos everywhere. Girls screaming, yelling, throwing dresses and fabric and tantrums left, right and centre. Jayda and I were just about to make an about turn and leave when Ms Berrypool put her coffee down and approached us.

She looked young but her croaky voice betrayed her age. It was the voice of an old lady that had smoked far too many cigarettes and drank more whiskey than was good for her. "Girls, you look like sane young things to me. What do you need?" She took my hand in hers and smiled at us.

I shrugged and looked at Jayda. She shrugged too. "Er, we just wanted a dress each. And some material to make a mask for a masquerade ball." I said, feeling embarrassed. My cheeks were tinged with red.

Ms Berrypool nodded sharply once and led us through a maze of shrieking girls to the changing rooms in the back of the shop. She banged on a closed door. "Time's up!" She rasped.

Padma and Parvati Patil came out looking exceedingly grumpy and annoyed. They hurried away, clutching what looked like giant pink and white meringues. Berrypool led us into the dressing room, which was huge and had a rack of beautiful dresses along the back wall. She took a few quick measurements with a wave of her wand and then flicked it towards the dresses. A few gorgeous gowns floated out and hung in mid-air on the hangers, looking like they were real beings and just itching for us to try them on.

Jayda and I stood and stared at them, feeling incredibly out of place in our shabby jeans and t-shirts. "Well, what are you waiting for? Do you like?" Berrypool offered, sounding impatient. She pulled out an old-fashioned cigarette with a black filter tip and it lit up of its own accord and drifted up to her lips. "Try them on." She said after exhaling a puff of smoke.

We stepped forward and each chose a dress to try on. When we stepped out of our cubicles, I nearly died of laughter as I looked in the mirror at ourselves. Jayda had chosen a navy blue floor-length dress with huge shoulder puffs and ruffles all the way down. She looked like a whale. I was just as bad, with a shocking pink dress that came to my knees. It was incredibly tight, made of some sort of nylon or spandex and it clung to every roll and lump and imperfection of my body. I cringed and quickly returned to the cubicle to try something else on.

It took us a while but we managed to get two dresses, reasonably cheap (Ms Berrypool had accidentally knocked the ashes from her cigarette onto them so she discounted the price) and they looked okay on us. We got some material for the masks to match and we were set.

The ball was a week away. You could feel the excitement in the air at Hogwarts. Exams were all done and dusted, all that was left was packing and the feast and the ball. The latter had most everyone that was attending in fits of excitement. Even Jayda and I could feel it. We found ourselves discussing the ball almost every day.

Finally, I received what Teddy said would be our last letter. The buzz that rippled through my whole body when I read it, the fizz that extended all the way to the tips of my fingers and toes, the jitters I felt was unbelievable. He explained an area down by the greenhouses where I should meet him half an hour before the End of Year Ball began. Jayda said it sounded dodgy, but when we went to check out the place just to be sure it wasn't some dark dank hole or trap, I decided it was romantic. It was a little grove just near the lake with a small stream echoing out into the water. It was still in view of the castle and greenhouses. It was perfect.

Then, before I knew it, it was the morning of the ball. More importantly, the morning of the day that I would meet Teddy. I awoke on a high, ecstatic and bubbly and full of an inexplicable joy. The day seemed to creep by excruciatingly slow. Every minute of useless classes (which were cut short to allow time for students to prepare for the ball) was a wasted minute. Every minute that ticked by seemed a year long. But every minute was getting me closer to meeting Teddy. After so many months. Today was the day.

A fragment of me felt apprehensive and nervous about what would await me down by the greenhouses. What if this whole thing had been a trick? What if all along it was just someone playing a joke – the Weatherfield sisters, perhaps? Every so often I had to remind myself of all the letters we had written, the emotions and personal life stories we had shared. What if that was all for nothing? No, it couldn't be so. Teddy had admitted that he loved me. This was no joke. I thought maybe I loved him too. Then I thought of the possibility of him being someone completely impossible. Harry? That would be too painful. I took a deep breath and ran over the list in my head of all the clues. I had them memorised. No, this was definitely someone I would never have thought of. Anyway, it didn't matter who he was. The person I loved was Teddy. He might go by a different name in different circumstances but he was Teddy all the same.

Jayda and I got ready for the ball together. All dressed up and ready, she looked radiant, like an exotic princess. She was wearing a pure white strapless sheath down to her knees with silver strappy sandals. Against her tanned skin it was gorgeous. I had charmed her mask – the same white of her dress, studded with small jewels – to stay attached around her eyes. The brown orbs stood out a mile away. Her hair was pulled into a thick French braid around one side of her head, resting lightly on her shoulder.

My dress was a little less of a statement. It was a pretty beige colour that ended just above my knees, covered with pleats and ruffles with a simple thin black belt around my waist. My heels were black also. I had Jayda thank for everything. I didn't care how vain or self-absorbed I sounded right now, I looked good. Jayda had artfully styled my hair into curls and placed them around my face. The mask was midnight black and edged tastefully with black feathers. We stood side by side and stared into the bathroom mirror, feeling incredibly excited.

I squeezed her into a hug and uttered a little nervous yelp. "You look so gorgeous, Jayda. I wish we had a camera."

She gasped and quickly ran out to the dormitory. When she came back she was clutching a big bulky camera. "We do! Come on."

We both stood back and let the camera do its work. It hovered in the air a few feet in front of us, clicking away. We posed and posed like silly little girls that had just discovered photography and the vanity it could unleash. After a dozen photos we put it away and stared at each other, finally ready to head downstairs to meet our boys.

"Make sure you don't get too wrapped in your Airhead, okay, I want a few dances with you, please, Miss." I said with mock severity.

"Well, try not to get kidnapped by your Teddy Bear. I want to see you sitting next to me as soon as dinner starts. Bring the Teddy with you, if you must."

We both giggled like children before stepping through the portrait and heading down to the ground floor where we would part ways. We passed so many girls in varying dresses; I never even knew there were that many girls at Hogwarts. The males were a lot less frequent but looked just as dashing and handsome as each other. Hermione caught up with us, her hair tamed somewhat into a tight ballerina bun. She told us that she was meeting Ron downstairs but was very worried about what he was going to be wearing. I assured her that Harry would never have let him head out in anything that wasn't too embarrassing. She looked extremely worried in her gown (a modest lilac floor-length dress, she looked beautiful). Before we had been able to tell her so, she was off, scurrying ahead of us to check on Ron's dress robes, and perhaps change them if need be.

In the Entrance Hall, Jayda and I hugged. I was full of what felt like billions of butterflies running amok in my stomach. I started to feel a little sick. She looked me in the eyes and gave me some encouraging words and told me where I could find her if everything did not turn out okay. She was possibly the best person I had ever met in all my sixteen years. I knew she really couldn't stand Teddy and everything he had done to try and woo me. But still she stood by me. I hugged her one more time and took a deep breath, trying to subdue and slaughter the butterflies inside me, and stamp down on the vomit that was threatening to rise.

I walked a little unsteadily out to the greenhouses, taking so many deep breathes that I thought I might pass out. At one point the ground became slightly soft, so I had to slide my shoes off and tip toe, trying to stay away from the muddy areas. When I arrived at the area that Teddy had described, no one was there. After muttering a quick spell with my wand that was in an invisible pocket in my dress, worry began to gnaw at me, as if the butterflies I had so easily massacred had come back from the dead, grown little butterfly fangs and were now eating me from the inside out. I found a nail on my hand that needed work, so I started chewing away at it nervously.

Where was he? Was he going to leave me hanging, jilted, like a modern day, Hogwarts Havisham? If he did, I swear I would track him down and pound on him like a sack of flour. It was slowly getting dark and cooler. The sun itself had disappeared below the hills, its rays still reaching up in a last bid to clutch and hang on to daylight. Even as I reached into my hidden pocket for my watch to check the time, I turned towards the castle and saw someone there. A boy. My breath caught in my throat and time seemed to slow as I took it all in.

A boy. Tall. Wide shoulders. Black dress robes, trimmed with green and silver. Blonde hair, tousled gently with hair gel. Breathing heavily through wet pink lips. A flush of red on pale skin. Icy blue eyes behind a black mask. A white flower in his left hand. Staring at me.

I stared back at him, feeling shell-shocked. Before I knew it, he had taken a few steps towards me, placed his hands on my arms softly, carefully, as if he was afraid I was going to break. My skin tingled. I looked up into his eyes, feeling light-headed. He hesitated as he leaned in to me. I could feel his hot breath on my skin. Such a burning and tingling was welling up inside me. Every inch, every millimetre, every single part of me trembled.

Our lips connected in a quiet, tender kiss.

**Eek, please review and let me know what you guys think! I was so excited to write this chapter and I think it turned out okay, if I may say so myself. Stay tuned, it gets better! :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

We separated slightly, breathing heavily and staring at each other, not speaking. I was still aware of his hot hands on my skin. Finally, after it felt as if I would melt away in the arctic ocean of his eyes, he spoke. His voice was deep. "I've wanted to do that for a very long time." He said huskily.

I smiled shyly, and looked down. "This is so unreal." My voice came out small and quiet, contrasting with the huge ball of emotions that was tumbling around inside me, each just as loud as the other and threatening to overflow and spill out into the atmosphere surrounding the two of us.

He let out a short chuckle. "Just a tad." He slid his hands away from my arms and offered me the flower in his hand. "This is for you."

"It's pretty." I said. I couldn't really manage words with more than two syllables at this point. I was still feeling quite dazed. This was real, this was happening.

"It's a gardenia. It means secret love. It's the flower that Paris gave to Helen of Troy when he visited her in Sparta."

I smiled and looked back up at him. "Wow. That's very deep of you. Thank you." I slipped the flower behind my ear.

He nodded. "Looks good." He held out his arm and turned towards the castle. "Shall we head up to the castle now?"

I hesitated. My nerves were still playing havoc with me. "Aren't you going to take off your mask? I still don't know who you are…Teddy."

A small smile played at his lips; we both realised how silly the name sounded out loud. "If it's okay, I was going to take it off at the end of the night. I'd like to be Teddy for one more night."

We both smiled then, and I nodded. "Sounds good to me, Ted." I said with humour in an attempt to break the ice a little more. It was still pretty thick as we made our way back up to Great Hall.

We walked silently and awkwardly next to each other for the most part, each of us unsure what we should be doing with our hands. I still could not believe that he was real. Teddy was a person! And he was incredibly handsome. It annoyed me that he wasn't going to reveal himself until the end of the night, although I had a nagging suspicion of who he might be. But the idea was absurd and I threw it away almost the minute I had conjured it up. For now, I didn't care who he was because he existed! It was all true, it was all amazingly real. The letters, the clues, the fluff-filled, flirtatious messages. It had all worked out. When I realised he was too shy to take my hand, I reached out and grabbed his, entwining our fingers. It felt right, our fingers together, touching. He looked down at my touch and then up at me and smiled. I smiled too. We both looked like grinning idiots. But we were happy idiots. And that's all that mattered.

People were still bustling about as we stood in the doorway to the Great Hall. It looked totally magical. The long house tables were gone, replaced with several smaller circular tables. Music was playing quietly from somewhere. "So...where do you want to sit?" He asked, releasing my hand quickly, instinctively as a group of students walked past and eyed us.

"Do you have anyone you want to meet up with? I was going to sit with Jayda." I pointed to a table where I could see Jayda and Ryan Airhead Ferguson discussing something emphatically. Jayda's hands were swinging about everywhere as she tried to get her point, whatever it was, across.

Teddy shrugged. "My friends aren't here tonight."

So we headed over to the table where Jayda was seated, me feeling slightly apprehensive. I sat down next to her, with Teddy on my right. He twiddled his thumbs nervously. Jayda's eyes widened as she looked past me to the boy that was hulked over the table, embarrassed. She mouthed a silent '_well?_' and I shook my head.

"Later." I said quietly. Then I looked at Ryan, who was simply dashing in his blue and white dress robes. "Hi, Ryan. How are you? This is my date…er…" I faltered. I would have sounded completely ridiculous if I called him Teddy.

"TD." Teddy suddenly said, reaching his hand forward to shake Ryan's.

Ryan nodded, gripping his hand in an absurd display of who had the stronger handshake. "Jayda's told me all about you two and your letters."

We fell into an uncomfortable silence then, only broken when a few more people would join our table every so often. We would say our greeting and introductions and tumble back awkwardly into quiet. Jayda and I hissed at each other quietly as I tried to tell her what happened down at the greenhouses. She certainly understood when I formed my lips into a kissing motion. She shrieked and bounced in her seat, throwing her arms around me in a hug. Then she signalled towards Ryan and nodded her head vigorously, as if to say 'us too'. Then it was my turn to shriek. We managed to settle down again once everyone was seated and the Heads of House had our attention.

They were just going through the usual formal introductions and warnings. Professor Dumbledore had the floor to start. "Welcome, young ladies and gentleman! I must say you all look spectacularly stunning. Ah, the tingle and euphoria that is youth. This night is for you all to celebrate your successes over the past year. For some, it is a farewell to this school. For others, it is but a brief respite where you can forget your worries, at least until your NEWTs come around. Enjoy!" His eyes twinkled in the light.

Everyone cheered and clapped. If we thought that would be all, we were wrong. Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and stepped in front of the Headmaster. This was going to be the part where she laid down the law. "You should all be aware by now that this night is a privilege. Anyone caught breaking any school rules will lose their House 50 points. They will also be escorted from the Ball and given detention helping Mr Filch clean the bathrooms. Any inappropriate behaviour or misconduct will be severely dealt with by your Head of House." She gazed out at us all sternly before turning away and sitting down at a small table for teachers in the upper corner. Her colleagues joined her shortly after.

A second later, the bowls in front of us filled with tomato soup and platters of dipping bread appeared around the table. As we started eating, I realised Jayda and Ryan were now deep in conversation and that there was a nervous tension between Teddy and I as we both became aware of how awkward the silence was. I was acutely aware of how close we were to each other. I glanced over at him nervously. He was chewing on a piece of bread. When he saw me looking at him, he quickly swallowed, as if it was taboo for me to see him eating. This caused him to start choking, so I had to give him a few thumps on the back in order to keep him alive.

When he had cleared his airways enough to speak, he looked incredibly embarrassed. "Thanks." He croaked with his eyes watering.

"That's okay. We haven't even been on a date yet, I can't have you passing out on me." I joked and we both laughed nervously.

"You've got quite a punch on you."

I beamed proudly. "Thanks. You need to when you grow up with six older brothers. It came in quite handy when I had to teach Harry a lesson too."

"You have to tell me about that. Every detail."

The conversation seemed to flow a lot easier after that. As easy as it was to write letters to each other, this was so much better. He made me laugh. He was actually interested in the things I talked about. He wanted to know everything about me, he said. I managed to make him laugh a few times too. We discussed Quidditch, exams, history, his family, the differences between six brothers and no brothers. Over the six courses that the Elves downstairs had so carefully and artfully put together, we barely paid any attention to anyone else. When the remains of dessert (boysenberry cheesecake with a chocolate mousse that I practically drooled over) faded away, the music was turned up a little louder and slowly couples from around the Hall stood up and moved onto the dance floor.

The first was a fast upbeat song and Jayda whisked Ryan away to 'boogie down' as she put it. I turned back to Teddy. "She can be pretty crazy sometimes. We both are, really."

"I can deal with crazy."

I started tapping my hands and feet to the music as we talked and Teddy soon asked if I wanted to dance. "Are you sure? We don't have to."

He stood up and held out his hand. "I'm not much of a dancer – in fact I pretty much suck – but I'll do my best."

He grinned as I jumped up out of my seat and placed my hand in his. We found a spot next to Jayda and Ryan who were shiny with sweat and red-cheeked. Teddy was right, he was an incredibly sucky dancer but I did the right thing and said nothing to him about it. Jayda and I held hands and spun around to the music, doing a crazy dance. When the song finished, the two of us were panting from the effort.

"We're going to sit down and get some punch." Jayda told us.

"Get us a couple of cups too." I called after her just as a voice came over on an invisible PA.

'_Okay, boys, grab your girls and hold them close. It's time for the slow dance._' It sounded startlingly like Filch, which made me want to laugh. Then I realised what he had said as a slow love ballad started to play. Teddy and I both became suddenly embarrassed and remained several feet apart until two tall and gangly redheads came waltzing theatrically by and bumped us together. I had no idea how Fred and George had wangled their way into Hogwarts for the ball, but I wished they didn't exist at that moment. Teddy instinctively put his arms around me. I did the same.

And then we slowly stepped to the music, swaying side to side. He was so warm and smelt intoxicatingly good. I hesitated slightly before laying the side of my head against his chest. I could feel his heart beating. Everything felt so good. So incredibly right. We _fit_. We matched. I smiled to myself and closed my eyes. I could feel his breath on my head and I looked up at him. I felt I was quite ready for another kiss.

He obviously felt the same as he leaned down toward me and placed a gentle kiss on my lips. When our lips parted, he leant down to my ear and whispered something I will never forget. "Thank you, Ginny Weasley."


	16. Chapter 16

**Thanks to everyone for all the nice reviews! :) I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and the little added extra at the end too ;) I do apologise for the shortness of all my chapters but I'm updating as much as my imagination and spare time can allow me to, so please forgive and r&r anyway!****  
><strong>**  
>Chapter 16<strong>

Everything was going blissfully well. The evening was one of the best of my life. But fate has an exceptionally cruel sense of humour sometimes. Just when I thought that the ball could not get any better, and that it would end with a third magical kiss and the removal of masks, fate snatched my happy ending away from me with a sadistic laugh. Everything went downhill. It happened. _He_ happened. Or rather, it was several events happening at once, culminating in a single, catastrophic shameful, appalling explosion.

Teddy and I danced together for a few more songs and then finally, exhausted and out of breath, we disentangled ourselves from the dancing gyrating bodies and made our way back to our empty table. Two glasses of pink punch were sitting there waiting for us. We gulped them down thirstily and then both agreed to take a short stroll outside where we continued our conversation about Quidditch tactics. This had turned out to be a particularly heated subject for the two of us – we both had different, conflicting theories on broom skills.

Once we had come to a stalemate, I stood up, wanting to yawn. "Well, I'll go and get us some more punch. Wait here. When I come back I want to hear your thoughts on the American's ghastly display of broomsmanship last weekend at the Tri-Nations."

Inside, people were still everywhere, dancing and talking loudly. The temperature was way too high so I slid my mask off to let the upper part of my face breathe. It felt good to get some cool air against it. I made my way to the drinks table where none other than Harry Potter was standing, looking miserable. I felt sorry for him, just a tad. He was nibbling away at a chocolate éclair, with a wayward dollop of cream on his cheek. He brightened up when he saw me approaching.

"Hi, Harry. Er, you've got…" I tapped at my own cheek and nodded toward his.

He reddened slightly and, being Harry, wiped at the wrong cheek. "Gone?" He asked.

I shook my head, a smile playing at my lips. "Other cheek – here." I picked up a tissue and reached over to wipe the cream off for him.

He smiled, and thanked me. "Better?"

"You look remarkably creamless."

He grinned and fed himself some more éclair, washing it down with a glass of punch. "No date either, I guess?" He asked, making the assumption that simply because he had found me alone meant I had arrived at the ball in the same manner.

I closed my eyes briefly. _Lordy, give me strength_. When I opened them, he had that same annoying hope in his eyes – the one that I was so sure I had exterminated back when he re-declared his love for me on Valentine's Day. "Actually, Harry, I am here with someone. He's outside." I lifted up the two glasses of punch I was holding as proof.

His shoulders fell. "Oh. Well, do you want to dance? Just once?"

A sigh escaped my lips and I offered him a sympathetic smile. "No, thank you, Harry."

"Then, can you at least tell me who it is you're with?"

By this point I was getting annoyed. Harry made me think of a huge splinter I had once had stuck under my nail. It had been embedded pretty deeply. It was immensely painful and aggravated me to no end that it would not come out. After several weeks I had had enough and I simply yanked it out with my bare hands—fingers. It was excruciatingly painful but knowing that it was finally gone was a blessed relief. I had then taken the splinter between my fingers and squeezed it like a little bug, crushed it down into the ground and then set it alight with my wand for good measure. I had an enormous desire to do exactly the same to Harry right now. Perhaps not the part involving arsonry but definitely the squeezing and crushing. Harry was a pest.

"I see absolutely no reason why I should have to." I informed him, refraining from living out my savage fantasy. Harry's eyes looked past me at someone just as a hand was placed on my shoulder. I knew who's it was already, even though I had only felt its touch for the very first time a couple of short hours ago.

"Is he bothering you?" Teddy asked in a defensive tone.

I shook my head as I looked up at him and smiled. "No. Let's go back outside."

Before we could turn and leave, Harry had piped up. I could sense that his ego and pride had been hurt and he needed to do something to restore it to its previous lustre. Not to mention the fact that he was most likely very jealous after seeing me with someone so different from him. "Who are you?" Never mind the fact that I had just told him to mind his own beeswax.

Teddy sneered at him and drawled, "Is that really any of your business?" I felt a cold hand of dread grip my insides all of a sudden.

Harry visibly stiffened and tried to bring himself up to his full height with a puff of chest. "I see it as my business, actually."

Teddy took a threatening step closer and brought his face closer to Harry's. He spoke slowly and menacingly, enunciating every word clearly. "It's _none_ of your _business_. _Potter_." He spat the last word out with disgust.

From that exact moment, that very second, I had another out-of-body experience. I was in control of my actions, I knew what I was doing, but I was watching it all unfold through someone else's eyes. No one, not a single other soul in the school could have said that word in such a manner, in such a way so as to portray such pure, thick black hatred. A wave washed over me, I felt cold and physically sick. Was it really him all along? It was the most inconceivable, impossible, ludicrous, absurd thing. The very idea of it was completely alien to me.

I knew who I would see behind the mask even before Harry had reached up to tear it away from his face. Harry dropped the mask and let it clatter to the floor. He stared, gobsmacked, from the person in front of him to me, and back again several times until he managed to speak. "Malfoy? You're with Malfoy? _Malfoy_? Draco Malfoy?" He repeated his name with popping eyes and an incredulous tone. He really could not fathom how or why this was happening. To be fair, neither could I. I was just as stunned as him.

Teddy—Draco finally spoke. He smirked at the green-eyed Gryffindor in front of him. "That's right, Potter. She's _my _girlfriend now. She's mine and there's nothing you can do about it."

Even as Draco finished his sentence, Harry hurled himself at him and they fell yelling and cursing to the floor. They were a sprawling mess of black robes and the occasional whisk of blonde hair. Every person in the Great Hall was watching the spectacle that was taking place before them with enthusiasm. Some were grinning and egging the fighting boys on. Others, like Hermione and Jayda and I, were probably close to tears.

"She's mine! You filthy ferret!" I heard Harry scream at one point as he punched Draco in the jaw.

I cried and screamed at them both to stop, feeling hot tears spill out down my cheeks. At this point, Hagrid and a number of other teachers managed to break through the circle that had formed around the two of them. Hagrid reached forward with one massive hand and plucked Harry from the brawl with ease. Draco stood and straightened, trying to fix his dress robes. Harry was placed back on the floor as he dabbed at his split lip with the cuff of his sleeve. Both boys were breathing heavily and glaring at one another.

Before McGonagall had even started screeching at them, I had pushed my way out of the Great Hall and fled up to the dormitory.

**End chapter 16.**

**Okay, so today we have a very special offer for the readers. Not only do you get the original, chapter 16 but, at no extra cost, you get the paragraph written by the author's boyfriend! That's right, ladies and gentleman, that's two for the price of one!**

**Just pay twice the shipping and handling.**

Teddy and I danced, like a pair of snappers swimming happily in the ocean. Then I felt hungry, so we took off and went down to the burger king down the road, suddenly we found out they introduced a new dinner special deal with 6 burgers and 4 chips and 4 drinks for 5 dollars, me and teddy thought it was a very good deal so we decided to stuff ourselves. It felt so good afterwards with the cheeseburger chicken burger and the fattie chips. We hooked up with two chicks on the way back home and all they wanted from us was 2 dollars. I was like 'lolololol'. Then Teddy goes, what you want? Those girls was like hey pretty boys, you wanna give us 2 dollars?

**Well, that was my little stint at humour. The paragraph is actually written by my boyfriend. I left my laptop open with this chapter on screen and he found it and started writing his own version of the story. I found it rather amusing. I don't know if you'll find it funny or not but I couldn't bring myself to delete it, so here it is! Enjoy! Or not.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Just a little warning of swear words in this chapter. I'll say nothing else. Enjoy! :)****  
><strong>**  
>Chapter 17<strong>

Before I had even made it halfway up through the castle, I rounded a corner, wiping my eyes, and came face to face with a group of Slytherins. I hesitated momentarily before dipping my head down and trying to walk past them without having to speak to them. Alas, it was not to be. They stopped talking as I tried to sneak past and one of them removed himself from the group. Crabbe, Goyle and the three Weatherfield sisters laughed and jeered quietly as they watched what their friend was up to. It was Blaise Zabini, looking dark-eyed and with an evil smile on his face. I tried to wipe the tear marks from my face as he walked over to me and stood in my path.

He was incredibly tall and dark. He stared down at me, leaning on the wall and leering. "So, I guess Malfoy finally told you the truth, then?" He said cryptically, smirking at me.

In my current state, I was in absolutely no mood for witless banter with a Slytherin. "Get out of my way, Zabini."

He remained in his place. "_Oh_, so he _hasn't_ told you the reality of the situation. You remain _ignorant_ of his motives." He seemed to be whispering and there was something sinister playing behind his words.

He had me completely irked. Why was he speaking in riddles like this? "What are you talking about?"

He sniggered gently at me, expelling a small puff of air on to my face. It stank of old cigarettes. I quelled the urge to cough. I also had a huge compulsion irritating me to simply give him a good whack right square in his face, and jinx him too, but I resisted it, if only to hear him out and discover what he was on. I stared at him, my face as stony as I could manage.

"Hmm, should I tell you? Or not? What a pickle I find myself in." He taunted, with a small mocking smile at his lips.

At this point, the five Slytherins behind us were snickering and giggling like children, amused grins on their faces. My nostrils flared of their own accord in anger, as if they too were frustrated by the derision and ridicule in Zabini's voice. My hand slipped into my concealed pocket and I brandished my wand, holding it menacingly with a look in my eye that said '_don't fuck with me, asshole_'. Zabini's arrogant façade wavered slightly and I took the opportunity to warn him of his impending doom should he continue this harassment.

He eyed my wand warily before finally yielding. He explained himself to me, albeit still in the same scornful ominous tone. "Alright, it's your funeral. Shortly after the school year started, a dare was sent out amongst us Slytherins. One of us had to choose the _most_ repulsive girl we could find, the ugliest, most abhorrent, _foulest_ girl we could think of, and make her believe we loved them. The rule was that the chosen Slytherin had to be in her _pants_ by the end of the year."

As he spoke, my flinty exterior soon turned to obvious disgust, then shock and finally horror. I wanted him to stop – I knew where this was going – but a part of me needed to hear the rest. I hung on his every word, absorbed with every one of them. The five twittering idiots in the background had also finally shut their gobs, obviously listening intently to what Zabini was explaining quietly.

"Draco, being the _competitive_ mug that he is, eagerly accepted. Everyone was thrilled when they heard who he chose." Here, he winked slowly at me – no jovial smile, just an evilly disturbing leer. I felt something heavy drop in my stomach and I started to feel nauseous. He continued on, this time speaking with a tone of disgust. "But he turned out to be _weak_. First, he chose to win your confidence through _letters_ rather than in person, like a man. Then, he did the most idiot fool thing ever. _He fell in love with you_. At least he thought he did. I was the only one he told, but I knew he was wrong. And now, clearly, he has been _unable_ to win your affections enough to get you in to bed. That's all he wanted, _Weasley_."

Utter shock and revulsion twisted its way through my body. I could not think a single sane thought. Every fibre of my being wanted to hex Zabini's face off – everyone's faces off. Before the tears managed to flood forward of their own accord, I had pushed through the blockade of cackling Slytherin's and hurried back on my way to the Gryffindor tower. I could hear their raucous laughter behind me. It stung at me like a thousand bees. At first I walked as fast as my feet could take me. Then I started running; I imagined I could hear footsteps behind me, like a nightmare, a hallucination, and people everywhere, everyone around me knew how stupid I was and they were trying to stop me and ask me questions, like what happened to my sensibility? Where was the famous Ginny Weasley wisdom?

I entered the common room through the portrait and dozens of students were sitting around, most likely discussing the Ball they wished they were at. They all looked up as I straightened up and headed straight for the stairs up to the dormitory. Half of them flooded me with questions about the Ball or why I was back so early with teary eyes. I ignored every single one of them as if they did not exist. The only thing that existed was getting away from all the questions. There would be rumours about this one, oh yes, there was no denying that. No matter what I said, it was inevitable and entirely out of my hands.

In the dormitory, I fell into a kind of numb disbelief, almost denial. I proceeded about getting ready for bed as if my whole world had not just come crashing down around me. I walked slowly and calmly to my bed, ignoring the couple of other girls that were plying me with question upon question, interrogating me as to why I was in such a state. I pulled my pyjamas from my trunk in silence and locked the door to the bathroom. When I had taken the beautiful dress off, I hung it on its hanger, ready to return to Jayda. I stood in front of the mirror, regarding my puffy eyes and mascara-tear-streaked face. With a kind of deadened, emotionless meticulous care, I took a wipe and removed all the evidence of my evening from my face. I combed out my hair and finally, when I was certain that it appeared as though the evening had never happened, I returned to the dormitory, to the gaping faces and insulting comments about my silence from the two girls, climbed into bed and curled into a ball underneath the blankets. I don't know how it got there, but I found the white flower he had given me lying on my pillow. I pushed it away and let it fall on the floor.

An aching headache began to attack me and frightened away any chance of sleep.

My mind started racing a million miles a minute as soon as I had closed my eyes. The only thing I could think of was Draco Malfoy, all the letters and Blaise Zabini's hateful words. I didn't even want to believe him, I knew I should not believe him – he was just a lying Slytherin, using words to try and hurt me. But Malfoy was a Slytherin too. Perhaps what he was saying was true? Had I just been a useless game to him, at least to begin with anyway? It made me feel incredibly worthless – not only had he lied to me about having feelings for me since I was 11 (I had said to myself when I read that very first letter that it was totally ridiculous, now I realised how true I had been) but he had been using me all along just to prove himself to his fellow Housemates. For sex.

But then I heard Zabini's last few words echoing around my head, or rather rattling around, slamming against my skull, amplifying my lethal headache. _He fell in love with you_. Even if Malfoy had been lying to me, could it be possible that he had indeed developed feelings for me, even as I had for him? His actions, the sweet tender kisses we had shared earlier and the gardenia, the slow dancing and endless conversations at the table. They had all seemed so real, so genuine. It almost felt like the boy I had shared the evening with was not the one that had gotten into a fight with Harry. There was Teddy. Then there was Draco Malfoy. Two different people. My mind felt like a labyrinth of crazy mixed feelings and emotions. I had admitted to myself only a couple of hours ago that I loved him.

I loved Draco Malfoy. Was that even possible?

The next day, everyone's last day at Hogwarts until September, I resolved to act as if nothing had happened. I was up basically the entire night spending time alone with my thoughts. Hours of going over everything that had happened, trying to work out what the right course of action was. At some point in the night, Jayda had squeezed herself onto my bed with me and slept next to me. I appreciated the comfort and it helped me to close my eyes for at least an hour or two. There were many stares the entire day. The girls in the dormitory gawking at me. Gryffindors down in the common room whispering. Students throughout the castle pointing and gossiping. I ignored it all with a determined silence. Jayda accepted my calm and quiet with a silence of her own. Although she did manage to glare and probably hiss threats all over the place at people that laughed at me.

Down in the Great Hall, for the leaving feast, Jayda and I sat at the end of the table quietly. We spoke to no one but each other. Draco Malfoy was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Harry Potter. Jayda told me that they had both been sent to opposite corners of the castle for the day to scrub away at muck and filth with toothbrushes, after Professor McGonagall gave them the worst lecture anyone at Hogwarts had seen in a while. Despite the gawkers and oglers and whisperers, it seemed that I was managing pretty well. But Pansy Parkinson obviously had to have her say, as it had been me, the shameful little floozy, that had gone to the ball with Draco Malfoy, when she had clearly had him marked as hers for months. The tables had flipped on me – now I was the harlot stealing boyfriends.

Naturally, she had to choose the day to assail me when it seemed like every single person that attended, taught, cleaned, haunted or worked in anyway at Hogwarts was present in the Great Hall. I was sitting rather innocently at the table, sipping on a cup of apple juice, waiting patiently for the feast to finish, when Jayda hissed a swear word and a warning at me, her eyes wide and worried as she stared past me at something. Before I knew it, someone had smacked me in the back of the head. My cup of juice spilt all over me and I twisted around as I stood up, dripping wet with juice and outraged.

Pansy Parkinson stood there with her arms crossed and a sour face. I stopped myself from breaking her nose. "What the hell are you doing, Parkinson?"

"So, I suppose you think you're all popular and whatnot now that you've pilfered _my_ boyfriend." She curled her lip at me in disgust.

All I could think was that the feeling was wholeheartedly reciprocated. I started trying to wipe the juice off myself. The people around us were watching on in awe. "Give over, Fat-Nose, that's the last thing on my mind."

Her brow furrowed in anger as she spluttered at the insult. "Look, _Weasel_, I don't know who the hell you think you are but if you think you can just waltz on in and steal my boyfriend like the common, filthy, disease-ridden slut that you are, then you better think again. Why don't you just go back to your hovel with your ugly brothers, your fat pudgy mother and go back to humping your dog again!" She shouted this last insult loudly, causing everyone in the Hall to turn their attention to us, before turning on her heel and stomping angrily away.

But that was the last straw for me. She could insult me as much as she liked but the minute she said anything about my family would be her last. Before she had gotten two steps away, I tapped her on her shoulder. "Oh, Pansy…"

She spun around, opening her mouth to yell at me some more. She was met by a bowl full of sloppy wet mashed potatoes right in the face. She shrieked and screamed and everyone in the Hall started laughing their heads off. I placed the bowl back on the top and wiped the excess bits off my hands. Jayda later said it was my crowning moment. Pansy's face was covered with a white mess. It dripped down her top, through her hair and all over her robes. I had never seen something as comical as this or done something as satisfying. And it made it even better that the rest of the school, even a few teachers, were hooting and laughing away too. Pansy squealed and squawked several more times, clearly waiting for someone, anyone, to come to her defence. When she realised that no one was coming, she turned tail and fled the Hall, trailing mashed potatoes behind her.

I nodded with satisfaction and sat down again. Jayda gave me a congratulatory pat on the back.

**So I made this chapter a little longer to make up for the delay in updating. Also, you've all probably noticed the change in title. It took a lot of deliberating on my part before I changed it. Because this storyline is a few years old, the title Torn was originally meant for it when I had a tiny change in ending. Now it's much improved (and if you don't think this story is good, then I guess that just proves how terrible the old one really was) I think this title goes a little better with the plot. I hope you guys like and don't mind, and if you do then too bad, I guess ;) Please review! :)**


	18. Chapter 18

**Massive apologies for the time it took to write this. I have been soooo busy with work. Finally, here is chappie 18!****  
><strong>**  
>Chapter 18<strong>

If I had thought the mashed potato incident with Pansy had absolved me of my sins, I was wrong. Barely 24 hours had passed since the fiasco at the Ball and yet there were already a gazillion different rumours going around. I thought the students would have been obsessed with going home and the summer holidays. Instead they were all discussing my sordid affair with Draco Malfoy. They all knew the basic idea – Ginny Weasley, a Gryffindor, was seeing Draco Malfoy, a Slytherin. But gossips will be gossips and rumours floated thickly through the air of the Castle, overwhelming the happiness surrounding the last days at Hogwarts for the year.

Someone said it was I that gave Draco his owl, Hades. Then that rumour acquired a ridiculous embellishment, where I actually gave Draco his venereal disease, herpes. Which he didn't actually have. Another rumour surfaced in which I was pregnant, later to be enlarged by the uncertainty of whether it was Draco's or Harry's. I heard one of my fellow Gryffindors (whatever happened to House loyalty, I will never know) come up with the idea that I was actually with Draco to get to his father to finally exact my revenge for what happened when I was younger. That same Gryffindor then suggested I had a plot to murder them both. And of course, Pansy Parkinson encouraged any and every story that she heard, making the situation ten times worse.

And I know what the crazy – sorry, craz_iest_ – part is. All these rumours, every single lie told about my personal life, was spread within an evening and a morning. To be honest, I was partly quite impressed with their gossiping skills. It still hurt unbelievably. People whispered behind my back as I left the leaving feast. When I got to the common room, all the Gryffindors hushed into silence when they saw me. On the train the next morning I was unwelcome in every carriage. I was forced to sit in a carriage with the young Hufflepuff boy with gas and personal hygiene problems. It was not a very enjoyable ride until Jayda joined me.

She had sat for the majority of the ride in a carriage with Airhead Ferguson until he had finally relinquished his grasp on her. She entered the compartment with chapped lips and a sheepish grin, which promptly turned into a grimace when the odours found her nostrils. "What's that smell?"

I winced and glanced at the snoozing form of the little boy. "Shush, he's asleep."

Jayda rolled her eyes and sat down next to me, holding her nose. Finally, when she decided she could take it no more, she stood up. "OI, SNOT-NOSE!" She shouted in a loud intimidating voice. The boy sat up quickly, wide-eyed, looking around at the crude person that had awakened him. "Get out of here, shithead, you stink!"

He went bright red in the face before grabbing his bag and hurrying out of the compartment. Jayda sat back down as she watched him leave. She had a satisfied smile on her face. I could not really believe she had just done that. "You're despicable." I told her with disgust.

She just laughed and shrugged. "Well, he did smell terrible. You're just too nice to admit it."

I rolled my eyes. "How's Ryan, anyway?"

She grinned. "Amazing. He—" She stopped midsentence as Harry appeared in the glass doorway, glancing in looking stupid, as always. Jayda and I both sighed simultaneously as he slid the door open and smiled at us. "I guess I'll leave you two to it."

Once she had slid the door shut, much to my silent dismay and protests, Harry sat down opposite me and did his best to stare at me beseechingly in the eyes. I figured he was attempting to stare deeply into my soul. It was proving to be rather difficult with my refusing to look at him. I found the countryside rolling by outside to be of much more interest. He kept saying my name, trying to get me to look at him but I did my best ignore him. He had been trying to talk to me all day, all of the morning and most of the previous night. Wherever I went, there he always was, no matter what. He was even waiting for me outside the girl's bathroom at one point, which I found just disturbing.

Finally, when I could take it no more, I turned to look at him with angry flaming eyes. "What is it, Harry?"

He smiled and reached his hands out to hold mine. I flinched and pulled away, eyeing his hands warily. It was as if he was oblivious to anything and everything I did to reject him. I probably could've slapped him silly and transfigured him into a doorknob with the engraving '_leave me alone_' and he still would've told me he loved me. He continued smiling even when I flinched. He placed his hands on his knees. "How are you, Ginny?"

"Just marvellous, thank you for asking, Harry. How are you?"

"I'm doing okay. I just wanted to apologise again for the disaster at the ball."

"I know how sorry you are, Harry. You've already told me twenty times."

He laughed lightly. "Yeah…so, what are you going to do with your summer?"

"I don't know…study, I guess and find a part time job, maybe?" This was starting to get ridiculously tiresome and stupid. Idle conversation with Harry Potter – not my idea of a well spent train ride. I sighed and decided to face him head-on. "Look, Harry, I know you didn't come here just for the small talk. What do you want?"

It took him a few moments to breathe deeply and probably calm his nerves before he finally spoke. "You know that I still love you." He stated and I nodded, doing my best to remain calm just like him. "Well, have you considered getting back together with me at all?"

I slowly shook my head. "It's still no, Harry." My patience was seeping away, like an infected wound weeping slowly.

"Then, are you going to get together with Malfoy?" He shivered involuntarily as he said his name.

'I don't _know_, Harry! God, please won't you just leave me alone? I'm getting a headache."

"So, that means there's a chance?" He asked, with a bit too much optimism.

I just about growled at him and placed my hands on my temples, pressing down on them to try and ward off the small headache. "I don't know! Maybe! Please, Harry, just go, would you?"

He grinned from ear to ear at my use of the word 'maybe'. I had never seen one word have so much cause for joy. "Okay. Thanks, Ginny." He stood up, still grinning like an idiot.

When he made a move as if to lean in and give me a kiss, I retreated further into the seat. "A-bub-bub-bub. Don't even think about it." I put my finger up in front of my face.

Straightening up, he shrugged and then finally left. I sighed with relief and lay down along the seat, rolling up my jumper and placing it under my head as a pillow. The headache was pulsing around my temples and forehead, and there was also a throbbing at the nape of my neck. All this caused by Harry Potter. I closed my eyes and tried to get some sleep to get rid of the ache. I must have been pretty tired; I fell asleep almost instantaneously.

_I was flying through the air, high above the Quidditch pitch. The crowd was chanting my name. Ginny! Ginny! Ginny! Ginny! I raced around the pitch, dodging no one but my shadow. For no one was there but me. I was alone, except for the surging crowd. All of a sudden, there was a loud gasp from the crowd and I realised that I had somehow lost my focus and concentration, slipped off my broom and I was now plummeting at a million miles an hour toward the solid hard ground. I hit it on my side with sharp pains all throughout my body._

_People crowded around me, gawking and whispering about me. Then my mother pushed through the throng and started yelling at me. "Ginny! Oh, Ginny, why did you fall, you stupid girl?" She disappeared back into the crowd._

_Next came Jayda, staring down at me looking sympathetic. "Ginny! Are you okay, Ginny? Why did you fall? You should've known you were going to get hurt. But you'll be fine." She turned and left._

_Now, Harry was crouched down next to me, a worried frown forming on his face. "Ginny! You fell. If only I had been with you. But then, I guess I would have hurt myself too."_

_Harry was replaced by Draco Malfoy's face. He regarded me with cold eyes. "Ginny! I knew I could make you fall. It was far too easy."_

_He faded away. Everyone faded away. It all went black, and all I could hear was the chanting of my name again. Ginny. Ginny. It was getting louder._

"Ginny! Ginny? Wake up!" Someone was yelling at me, shaking my shoulder.

I opened my eyes and realised I was on the floor of the train carriage, staring at the red carpet. Draco was bending over me, his hand warm on my shoulder. I looked up into his silver eyes and paused for a moment, trying to register what had happened. I had been dreaming. Of course. My side ached slightly from where I had fallen onto it.

Draco put out his hand to help me up. I stared at it. "Take it. I'm not diseased, you know." I put my hand in his and he pulled me up.

I sat down shakily and looked at him. He gave me a small smile. "Thanks." I said pitifully.

Suddenly, my nerves gripped me and my palms turned sweaty. This was the first time since the Ball that we had spoken to each other. The first time I had seen and spoken to him as Draco Malfoy, not Teddy. It was quite a strange feeling. I was still undecided as to whether or not I should hate him for his motives behind pursuing me. He had lied to me. He was Draco Malfoy. I _should_ hate him. But the fact that I had fallen for him made me doubt myself.

"Do you want to talk?" He finally asked.

I hesitated and came up with the only response that I really knew. Anger. "Why would I want to talk to you?"

"Look, Ginny, I know I embarrassed you the other night. I'm so incredibly sorry. I acted like such an ass."

What he said didn't even come close to an apology. "You didn't just embarrass me, Draco. You made me feel like something you owned. You and Harry might as well have been fighting over a scrap of cloth or a few Galleons."

He sighed and stared at me solemnly. There was so much emotion in his eyes. "I know, I know. I regret every second of it. I'm truly sorry. Please forgive me?"

I was somewhat shocked that he could be so quick to ask forgiveness. He hadn't even addressed the dare or the lies in his letters. "How can you even say that? What about the lies? The dare? Don't you even want to apologise for that?" I asked indignantly.

Confusion passed over his face momentarily. "What dare? Look, I know I kept my identity from you for far too long. But surely now that you know who I am, you can understand why? You never would have liked me if you knew who I was."

"I don't care about that. I care about you lying to me. You told me you liked me since I was 11. I was stupid enough to believe that."

He almost spluttered. "What? Ginny, the minute you came to this school I knew I loved you. You were – are – so beautiful. I have never lied to you, ever."

How could he continue lying to me like this? He really was a Slytherin. "Draco, Blaise told me about the dare. I _know_. I know that you only started writing to me to try and have sex with me." I said with disgust.

Draco's eyes widened in shock and his mouth widened. "_What_? He told you that? I'm going to bloody pound him!" He beat his fist into his open palm with anger.

I started to feel slightly foolish. I remained silent, and braced myself for what was to come. Why was I such a fool all the time?

Draco took a deep breath to calm himself. "Ginny, you need to know that Blaise is not exactly a nice person. He has the worst character and personality of anyone I know. I've never told anyone about my feelings for you. In Slytherin, it would be the worst betrayal anyone could ever think of. I'm sure the same goes for Gryffindor. But last year, I couldn't take it anymore. I wrote you the letters. But Blaise found one of them a couple of months ago. Not only was he appalled that I liked a Weasley, I think there was jealousy in there too. He's much too cold and aloof to ever find a girl that likes him. I made him swear never to tell anyone. But I guess he decided to take matters into his own hands, save Slytherin and the Malfoy name from being tainted. There was never any dare or whatever he conjured up to fool you. He probably just made that up to try and make you hate me and keep you away from me. He's a fool. And he's going to pay for lying to you."

For quite some time I was silent, soaking up what he had said. I felt like my whole life recently had just been people telling me things, telling me what they thought I wanted to hear. I had no idea what to respond with. Apologise for assuming the worst about him? For believing everything Blaise Zabini said with blind gullibility?

Draco said it all for me in a few short words. "I _do_ love you."

I melted. A smile crossed my lips, which then caused Draco to smile again too. He stood up and sat down next to me. We both looked at each other, and then he kissed me on the cheek and put his arm around me.

"I love you too."

**So, this is where I originally ended the story. But I've decided to extend it to include some more Draco/Ginny action, seeing as there hasn't been a huge amount throughout. Please review, I love hearing your thoughts about the story. Thanks! :)**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

Draco and I dozed off into a calm sleep for the remainder of the train ride. I still had my anxieties, and it felt incredibly strange to be resting there so close to him, with his arm draped over my shoulders so casually and his kiss still prickling on my cheek. To be honest, I didn't actually fall asleep and I wasn't sure if he did too, but I closed my eyes anyway and let my mind wander as it was wont to do. The one thought that kept stabbing at my brain was that it was a Malfoy – _the _Malfoy – sitting right there next to me, snoring quietly and rather cutely. And I was comfortable. I was happy. When I opened my eyes, I noticed his hand was resting lightly on his leg. His skin looked remarkably soft. I reached out my own hand to touch his.

He jumped slightly at the touch but did not open his eyes. I had a feeling he was awake and knew that I was holding his hand, but he was choosing to keep his eyes closed. The feeling of his skin underneath my fingertips was divine. I smiled to myself and then glanced out the window. The countryside was slowing turning into houses and shopping areas and I realised that we were getting closer and closer to London, when the two of us would have to separate. He would go one way and I another. And we would be back to letter writing. And I would be miserable.

A yawn escaped Draco's lips and I realised he was waking up. Or he was announcing he was waking up. I quickly closed my eyes and steadied my breathing, to pretend I had been asleep all along. It was quite a game we had going on. I smiled inwardly. Draco extracted his arm from my shoulders and sat forward. I feigned a yawn of my own before slowly opening my eyes and stretching. It was all probably much too theatrical but I didn't really care. We both looked at each other and smiled.

"We're nearly there." I told him, motioning to the cityscape passing by outside.

He nodded. "Yeah, I felt the train slowing down a bit."

We fell into a silence, both staring outside. I was thinking of the fact that we had to leave each other very soon. There was an awkward air about the place that had not been there before.

He stood up slowly and my shoulders dropped. "Well, I guess I'd better go back to get my things."

I stood as well and nodded, shoving my hands deep into my pockets. The train pulled into the station and came to a stop. He nodded too, imitating my own head bob before sliding the door open and striding out just as my mother appeared at the train window, glaring in at me. I wasn't sure whether she had seen Draco leaving or not but my face went red even so. Her eyes were narrowed and her hands placed menacingly on her hips. It's amazing how one simple stance can evoke such fear inside a person. I very nearly sat back down and waited apprehensively, either for the train to return to Hogwarts or wherever it went during the year, or for my mother to board the train herself and track me down, haul me roughly off it by my ear and give me the worst verbal hiding of my life.

Clearly, someone (and I had a fair idea who) had informed her of the happenings at the ball, and the boy I had now chosen to date. So now, not only was I scared for my wellbeing if I got off the train, but I also felt rather stung by Draco's sudden exit, without even so much as a goodbye. I decided then and there that this summer was probably going to be one of the worst in history. My mother would no doubt ban me from leaving the house until September, sentence me to months of dishes and cleaning and gardening and scrubbing while my six brothers sat back and watched me labour, sipping on cocktails or fancy fruit drinks with little umbrellas. I had a feeling she would most likely take my wand off me too.

My mother's wrath turned out to be a zillion-bajillion-squillion times worse than what I had imagined. Once the crowd in the train aisle had dissipated somewhat, I grabbed my things and headed for the door. Jayda caught up with me and gave me a final squeeze and goodbye (she knew we would most likely not see each other until we were back at Hogwarts). I stepped down off the train and headed down to where my mother was standing alone. She didn't look at me. It was the silence that got to me the most. Ron was nowhere to be seen just yet, so I dropped my trunk and bag on the ground.

"Hi, Mum." I tried to work as many emotions as I could into the tone of those two words. I'm sure she must have heard the remorse and the hint of a question for forgiveness. I added a tiny portion of gratitude that she was there to meet me. And a weak smile was the cherry on top.

Her head remained staring straight ahead at nothing, but her eyes swivelled slowly toward me, looking like they were filled with nothing but pure disgust and rage. She said nothing as her eyes returned to their original position. Ron joined us shortly after, and at the sight of him I was marginally grateful; at least he would give me some sort of excuse not to try and talk to her. He dropped his things and gave Mum a big hug and kiss on the cheek. It was as if she became a different woman. A huge grin crossed her face at the sight of her youngest son and she wrapped her arms around him tightly. She put her hands either side of his head and babied him as she enquired to his health and engaged in other small pleasantries. It made me feel sick, to be snubbed by my own mother in such a way.

Further down the platform I spotted Draco meeting both his parents. They greeted him coldly and turned to leave, but not before passing me the mother of all evil glares. His mother shot daggers at me, much like my own mother had done, but with added hatred. Lucius Malfoy curled his lip in disgust at me, his wand in hand. I shuddered involuntarily. I was certain that, if he really wanted to, he probably would have murdered me on the spot for going anywhere his only son. As it was, the glare he was passing me could have sent me into a coma. If looks could kill, I'd be dead ten times over.

"Well, let's get going! Your brothers are waiting at home for you." Mum picked up Ron's trunk and bag and shoved them in my direction without actually looking at me.

I took them without a word. If this was the way she was going to treat me, then so be it. I would take what I was given with silent acceptance. All she would see was her baby girl yearning for forgiveness. She would never know that underneath I was actually seething. She had no right to treat me this way, simply because of who I had chosen to be with. But I accepted it anyway.

After all, it was only two months, right?

I had never been more wrong. In all my sixteen years on this planet, I had never encountered such fury, such wrath, from my mother. On the way to the fireplace we would use to get home, Ron dropped me in the dung even further. "So, you got my letter about Ginny and Malfoy, I guess, Mum?" Sometimes I swear he had lost his brain somewhere along the way. Where was his sibling allegiance? The brotherly love? Was he purposely dumping more punishments on my head, or was he just trying to make conversation without realising what he was doing to me?

Mum sniffed and replied rather shortly. "I will deal with your sister later. That's none of your business now, Ron. But, sweetie, how did the Gryffindor team do this year?"

I rolled my eyes behind them and trudged along, shifting the heavy trunks between my hands and stopping every so often to heft the bags on my back. My shoulders and arms began to ache. The headache from earlier had followed me from the train and skipped along happily behind me, every few moments giving me a nice hard kick in the head. Physical punishment. Real nice, Mum. Once we had floo-ed home, I was sent to take the trunks up to our rooms. Not one of my brothers offered me a hug or friendly welcome home, not even my own father, which really hurt. I scowled moodily to myself as I tramped loudly and slowly up the stairs, heaving the bags as I went.

Since I was no longer wanted in my own living room, I resolved to stay in my bedroom for as long as was necessary. If it came down to it, I would remain there until September, surviving by reading my books and drinking the water that was leaking from the pipe in the corner of my room. It was brown but surely drinkable. I was in an incredibly foul mood. Hungry. Angry. Rejected by my family. Missing the two people that still liked me – Jayda and Draco. I felt like I could just jump out my window and run away any moment. It seemed like everyone around me, everyone in this house I inhabited, despised me. It did not feel very nice.

After an hour or two, there was a very quiet knock on my door; one I had been expecting. I had been snoozing gently on my bed, having fallen asleep after much pacing and angry mutters under my breath about the unfairness of life. I sat up with a heavy sigh; the polite knock had come from either my mother as she attempted to respect the privacy I was permitted inside my own room before attacking me, or from the one brother that cared enough about me to visit me when my mother was otherwise occupied and was unaware what he was doing. I opened the door slowly and was relieved to see Bill standing at my door, smiling sympathetically. Bill had always been partial to a hearty meal three times a day, believing it to be the sustenance needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and so he had always been the brother that visited his sibling with a small plate of leftovers, stolen from the cupboard after dinner, when said sibling had been sentenced to their room without a meal. I had always been and would always be grateful. I stood back and let him in with a wave of my arm. He passed me a plate of beefy lasagne and broccoli before he sat down on the stool in the corner. I had owned it since I was six so I didn't really trust it anymore, but apparently people that rarely entered my room remained unaware and I decided to leave it that way. Let them sit there, if they must, and fall on their bottoms, if they were too heavy.

"You want a drink? There's water in the pipe." Bill shook his head and wobbled precariously on the stool but remained upright nervously while I wolfed down the meal. It was delicious, as all Molly Weasley's meals were. I offered Bill a small thank you. "It's good. What do you want?"

The compassionate smile he had been wearing was still there. "I just wanted to make sure my baby sister got a decent meal."

He seemed genuine enough. I always had to perform an initial interrogation to make sure my conniving mother had not sent him to assassinate or torture me. "Thanks."

I placed the dirty plate on the floor at the end of the bed and then took to staring out the window and dreaming of the freedom it offered. Bill sighed at my melancholy expression. "It'll be okay, Ginny." I shrugged, keeping my eyes on the birds fluttering outside the window. "Just let her have her rant, then you apologise for everything and then it'll all go back to normal. You'll be welcome at the dinner table again."

I passed him a raised eyebrow accompanied by a sceptical response. "Really? I think this will take at least a couple of weeks, Bill, if not a month or two. Besides, who says I need to say sorry for anything? I'm not sorry. I have done nothing wrong." I said stubbornly, preparing myself for a gentle, reasoning talk from my wise older brother.

He rubbed his hands over his face as if he was very tired, then placed an elbow on his knee and rested his chin in his open hand. "If it makes you feel even a smidgeon better, I agree with you."

I was taken aback. I had not expected such a response. Maybe a pep talk about family loyalty to start and something pathetic about Mum's weak heart intended to shake me up a bit. But not this, certainly not this. "What?"

"I think you're right. Only _you_ can choose who you like, and if it somehow, however shockingly, appallingly, ends up to be a Malfoy, then so be it. I'll support you no matter what, Gin. I've been in a similar boat to the one you're in. I'm pretty sure everyone in the family, especially Mum, hates Fleur. But we love each other. And there's nothing that anyone can do about it."

I smiled, grateful for the support and love I was receiving. He was probably the only relative that didn't hate me at the current moment in time. "Thanks, Bill. And thanks for the dinner."

He stood up and gave me an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "My advice, Ginny, is to just accept whatever Mum throws at you, do whatever she wants and agree with whatever she says. In my experience, submission has always been the easiest way out. After a while, she'll leave you alone and everything will go back to normal."

I offered another thanks as he left and then shut the door behind him. He was probably right. The best option to ease my mother's rage would be acquiescence. But I was much too obstinate for that. I would fight for what I believed in if it killed me. Not that my mother would kill me. Well, I was sure she would most certainly try, either through starvation or incarceration. In any case, if Draco Malfoy was the one I chose for my other half then my family should accept that, no matter what. They were my family. Family love and loyalty went beyond petty feuds, didn't it? I decided that, whatever my family did to try and turn me away from the Malfoy family, I would stick to my guns. Even if it meant…having no family…at all. Yes.

**Please review! I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'm rather proud of how this one turned out. Stay tuned for more! :)**


	20. Chapter 20

**Okaaaaay I know how angry you all must be - this chapter took much too long to be uploaded, I know. You have no idea how sorry I am. I have been extremely busy with work and Xmas etc. But I made this one longer to try and make up for it. So please read and enjoy! Or at least try to :/**  
><strong><br>****Chapter 20**

My bedroom became my jail cell. I managed to hole myself up in there for the remainder of the evening and all of the next day, with a few plates of food brought in by Bill every so often. I was unbelievably grateful – each time I thought my hunger pains were going to overwhelm me, I heard his tap on the door. Aside from the visits from my eldest brother, I was alone and getting lonelier by the minute. Not one of my other brothers bothered to come and see me. Charlie wasn't at home so I didn't worry about him. Percy was home for a few days though but he did not come anywhere near me. I didn't even really want Ron to visit me after having spent the better part of a year with him. But it was the twins, probably the two brothers I connected with the most, it was their absence that hurt the most. Were they really going to let such a petty thing like this destroy their relationship with their little sister, their only sister?

I was dying to write to Draco. Or Jayda. Or anyone, really. Basically, I was just dying for contact with the outside world. And it hadn't even been two days yet. I really would never last if I was kidnapped and held captive for a prolonged amount of time. I could have easily written a letter but it would never get sent because even though Errol was still hanging on, there was no way I could sneak downstairs and get him sent off without my mother finding out. She was all-knowing, all-seeing. So I sat most of the day, staring idly out the window with my chin in my hand and the rest of the day going over the reading material that I had brought home with me from school.

It was on the evening of the second day, not long after I had heard the scrapes of cutlery on plates and soft murmur of conversation cease somewhere below me in the big old house, that there was the typical quiet knock on the door. I had been ridiculously famished. It's quite strange how a day of doing nothing whatsoever can make you so hungry. I got up from the window and traipsed over to the door, my stomach growling at me. "Thank _God_, you're finally here. I'm starved."

I cracked the door ajar to reveal my mother standing there with her hands on her hips. It was that terrifying stance again. My knees began to shake as I swallowed. She looked at me with cold eyes. "May I come in?" She asked civilly.

Even though I would have rather told her to go jump, I stood back to let her in. No matter what my response had been she would've come in anyway. The pleasantries were just a façade. She walked with purpose into the room and clasped her hands together in front of her as she stood in the middle of the room. I had an awful feeling of unease inside me. Plus the hunger pains had begun. The warning signs were already in place. Bad night ahead, _beware_. But there was nothing I could do except brace myself for what was to come. Her eyes followed me as I shut the door, moved back to the window and sat down on the edge of my bed to stare down at our driveway. The dirt track led up to the main road in the distance, just a faint line of trees to me, which then carried on to the village a mile away. Every inch of me longed to jump out the window (in the hope I would survive the 10ft drop) and run like the wind. But instead I closed my eyes and listened as my mother addressed me in a very low deep tone.

"Ginny, look at me."

I refused and said nothing.

"Ginny, _look_ at me."

I flicked my eyes toward her. I didn't care how absurdly childish I was being.

"You have no idea, absolutely _no idea_ how disappointed I am in you. I did not raise you to be such a stupid, heartless, insensitive girl."

"I'm not stupid or heartless _or _insensitive—"

"Be quiet. I thought you were a clever, considerate and caring young girl. Up until a few days ago anyway, then I receive a horrid letter from your brother, telling me that _you_, my only daughter, have been with Draco Malfoy."

She hissed his name out with loathing. I observed her with lazy eyes, sighing loudly. I really did not care what she had to say – everything she had to say against Draco just made me more determined to stay with him.

"Actually, I've been with him since the beginning of the year."

I could see hot red anger simmering beneath the surface and I knew I was pushing her closer and closer to an eruption any second now. Her face was slowly turning redder.

"Overlooking the fact that he has tormented you and your brothers for _years_, have you not even considered what his father has done to you and this family in the past? Did you not even _think_ for one second about how your father and I would feel about this?"

I wasn't sure whether it was a rhetorical question or not. But she was waiting and staring at me and huffing and puffing like a big bad wolf. A big bad scary mother wolf. "No."

"You're a stupid little girl, Ginny Weasley. I can't believe you would do something like this." At this point, it seemed like she had had enough. "You will not see him or talk to him or write to him _ever_ again while you are under my roof. Do you understand?"

My nostrils flared in anger. "That's not fair! You can't do that!"

She stooped in close to me, her face a bright red angry tomato. "I can do what I like, when you are in _my_ house, under _my_ roof. You haven't even bothered to apologise to me or any of your siblings. You can stay in here until you've decided whether your loyalties lie with some evil Malfoy or with your family who love you."

As she was leaving, I growled to myself under my breath and flopped down on to my bed, which creaked and groaned, exactly the way I was feeling. As I rolled over to face the wall, I muttered angrily, "I _love_ him."

I heard my mother pause as she held the door open to exit. She stood still, probably watching me before slamming the door behind her. Let her muse over _that_ for a few hours – her precious baby girl in love with Draco Malfoy. How would she feel about banning me from seeing him now? Would she really contain the flow of a young budding love? Who was I kidding, of course she would, she would do anything to keep her only daughter young and innocent for as long as possible. She didn't want to lose me to him. Well, I suppose I couldn't blame her, but keeping me away from him was only making me want him more and more.

The following day, I went without any meals whatsoever. Bill had obviously been caught somewhere along the line, so I stayed in my room until the afternoon when Percy came in and sat on the wonky stool. Unlike with Bill, I actually almost wanted the stool to give way and see my dorky brother go crashing to the ground. The stool held its ground, however, and managed to stay upright for the whole duration of Percy's hour long lecture. I let him have his tirade, as tedious as it was, only to get it over and done with. Mum had clearly sent him up here to talk to me with reason and wisdom. I pretended to listen, but really I was watching a family of birds in a nearby tree. When it was over, Percy gave me an awkward pat on the head. Next came Ronald, the brother I probably wanted to see the least. After all, it was he who had ratted me out to my mother and dumped me in the huge pile of dung I was now sitting uncomfortably in. He came in without knocking and sat down on the end of my bed.

I was sat at the window once again. I turned to look at him. "Get off my bed."

He quickly stood up and sat down on the stool. "Mum wanted me to talk to you."

I ignored him and started picking at my nails.

"She thinks you want to disown the family or something."

"That's ridiculous." I murmured.

"Ginny, why don't you just say sorry and be done with it?"

For once in his life, he made sense. But I wasn't about to inform him of this miracle. "Why don't _you_ just get out of my room and leave me alone?"

He sighed dramatically and looked at me gravely, with his head tilted slightly forward and his eyebrows raised, looking completely, aggravatingly patronising. My hand twitched in anticipation of what was coming. "Ginny, let's all be mature adults here. I've come to talk to you, brother to sister, of my own accord. I want things to go back how they were, when you were just my little sister, dating my best friend and everything was simple. How about that, then?"

What a phenomenal change. One minute my brother was citing wisdom – I was seeing logic in his words. One breath later and he was babbling away like an ape. I raised one eyebrow at him incredulously. "You just said not ten seconds ago that Mum sent you in here. And I am not getting back with Harry, if that's what you're thinking. Ron, I think you should just get out of here, you're making my brain hurt."

Ron sighed once again, which only proved to irritate me further. By now my hand was convulsing erratically. It was ready. But my brother, apparently, was not. "No, I won't leave until we've sorted this." He was trying to be such a good older brother, full of knowledge and peace and fairies and butterflies.

Little did he know how much I wanted to behead him right then and there. I stood up. "Ron, I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. Get out. This has nothing to do with you."

Had Mum taken away his ability to sense danger before she sent him up here? Did he not realise the threat I posed even as I stepped threateningly closer and closer towards him? Was the anger not obviously painted all over my face, with my teeth gritted together and my right hand slowly closing into a fist?

He was still prattling away, apparently oblivious. I think he finally got the idea that I no longer wanted him in my room when I punched him on the nose. "GET OUT!" I screamed. The force of the blow caused the stool to give way, sending him rather unceremoniously clattering to the floor. I didn't laugh until he had left the room, the bile coursing through my veins didn't allow it, but I wanted to. The shocked face, sprawling limbs on the floor, bloody nose – all quite comical. He quickly got to his feet and hurried from the room without so much as a backwards glance.

I sat down on my bed and snorted to myself, the image of Ron's face still firmly imprinted behind my eyelids. My mother was evidently using some new tactic where she utilised as many of her subordinates as possible. This was war, I quickly realised. And if that was the case, then that meant it was just my father, the twins and Charlie left. I ruled Charlie out. He was away in some African country chasing dragons until Easter. Would Dad have the guts to come and yell at me? Probably not. So it was Fred and George. If they failed, then perhaps that meant Mum would admit defeat. That was highly unlikely. I could withstand any of my brothers, the twins included, I had learnt that from the age of five, perhaps even younger. One of my earliest memories was of the twins taking turns dunking me in the bog that had formed in a nearby field after a heavy autumn rainfall. They had been testing to see if I was water-resistant. As it turned out, I wasn't, but I didn't cry out even once during the experiment.

Lunchtime the next day, and I was slightly crestfallen when I realised that Fred and George were in fact not going to talk to me. I was staring out the window, thinking of ways to escape, as I always was nowadays, when I noticed two tall gangly identical redheads emerge from the house and walk slowly down the driveway. It was the twins, dressed in their working suits, heading off to work. They were both carrying suitcases. I was rather disappointed – I had been devising all kinds of sarcastic comebacks and insults all night and predicting any possible conversation, ready to use on them when they came. And now they were leaving. I watched them go, and at the last minute, they both turned back to look at me and gave me a very small wave before disappearing from sight. I smiled to myself.

Unfortunately, that meant I had to face my mother one last time. I decided to apologise, as Bill had suggested, even if it was the fakest of fake apologies that ever existed. Even though it would pain me greatly to do it, because I firstly hate lying and because it would mean admitting to my mother that she was right and I was wrong and I was nothing more than a silly little girl, just as she had said. The day that Fred and George left, before dinner, I heard her coming up the stairs. There was the knock, I stood up in the centre of the room and clasped my hands angelically in front of me. I had even plaited my hair neatly and tidied my room to further prove to her I was sorry. I told her to enter and she walked in, her face remaining as passive as ever.

"I'm sorry, Mum. Sorry for being so stupid and insensitive to you and dad and everyone. I've decided to not contact Malfoy anymore, just like you said. You can even take my parchment and ink and wand if you really want to. Although, I will need it back when I head back to school, of course."

She was quiet for a few moments before she finally spoke. "You admit that you were wrong?"

I nodded.

"Fine. Dinner is on the table. You can apologise to everyone down there."

She left without another word. Clearly, she had seen straight through me. But if that was what it took, then so be it. I was just grateful to be eating a normal meal again. We would probably have a full blown shouting match somewhere along the line, but at least I was eating regularly until then.

Downstairs, I entered the kitchen and sat down at my usual spot at the table. There was an incredibly thick silence about the place. Dad was sitting at the head of the table, waiting patiently for his meal, not looking at me. Ron was busy helping Mum dish the food up. I didn't even notice him at first, somehow I had missed his arrival even with my constant gazing out the window, but, much to my dismay, Harry was at the bench pouring a glass of juice for everyone. I groaned inwardly. What a wonderful time to be alive. Mum, Ron and Harry finally sat down after giving everyone a plate of food. Harry passed me a giant beaming smile. I responded rather weakly with a smile that probably looked more like a grimace. We all started eating in silence.

After what felt like hours, I finally spoke up. "Just wanted to say sorry for everything, by the way." It was pathetic, but hopefully I would get away with it.

I would have, if it weren't for my idiot brother. He made a small chuckling noise. "Well, that sounded fake."

All my pent up rage from the past few days seemed to boil up at once and explode out into the air around me. "Oh, shut up, Ron! You know, this is _all_ your fault, if you had just kept your bloody big fat mouth shut, you oaf! God, why do you have to be so stupid—"

And all of a sudden everyone, bar the father and the ex-boyfriend, was on their feet, yelling over one another, screaming and ranting.

"Don't you _dare_ blame this on your brother—"

"Don't call me an oaf! You're the one that went running off with a Malfoy like a little tart—"

"—why can't you just mind your own bloody beeswax? Oh, a tart, now, am I—"

"—he did the right thing by telling me! You've lied to everyone and shamed us all, you ungrateful child, you—"

"ENOUGH!"

Everything returned to silence as my father slammed his fist down on the table. I very rarely saw him mad, but when I did, I didn't like it one bit. He stared around at the three of us, ignoring Harry, who was looking uncomfortable as he tried to shrink down into his seat.

Dad turned his gaze to me. 'Ginny, go up to your room, right now."

I threw the fork I had been clutching in my fist to the table and snorted at them all. "Gladly." I stomped and stamped and trudged and traipsed up the stairs as loudly as I could and slammed my door so hard that my room shook for several seconds afterwards.

Once safely within the confines of my room, I kicked at the pile of broken stool pieces angrily and growled out loud, trying to release some of the fury that was still running through me. After a few minutes, I sat on the bed and took deep breaths. I had to do something. Anything. They couldn't keep me in this prison forever.

**You're all probably incredibly disappointed with this chapter. So I apologise. It does suck just a little bit. I'm not that happy with it but I wanted to get something up here, at least before Xmas. I probably won't post another chapter til after Xmas now but I promise, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye that I will have something decent for you guys in the New Year, maybe even before then. Until then, Merry Christmas everyone and have a safe and happy New Year! :)**


	21. Chapter 21

**Oh and this is just a little bonus to keep you guys interested ;)****  
><strong>**  
>Chapter 21<strong>

Death was at my window. I had fallen asleep on my bed after the fight and woke up to a tapping on the window pane. It was dark outside now. But Hades was there, relentlessly tapping at the window, clutching a piece of parchment in his beak. The sight of that owl and that parchment was probably the happiest moment of my summer so far. I hastily sat up and opened the window. Hades fluttered in and dropped the letter on my bed. He took one look around my room and, as if deeming it an unsuitable place to stay the night, flew off somewhat indignantly. He was definitely a Malfoy owl.

I slid the window shut and eagerly read what was written on the parchment.

_Ginny,_

_I hope all is well in the Weasley household. I haven't heard from you since we left the train. Your mother looked about as happy as mine did. My parents have basically told me that they'll disown me if I keep seeing you._

_When can we see each other again? Please reply. Hades will stay overnight with you, if that's okay. Hopefully, you'll have a reply for me._

_Love, Draco_

I clasped the letter to my chest. It only took me a minute to decide what to do. I scribbled a hasty reply, sat the letter on the windowsill and waited eagerly for Hades to return. Excitement bubbled up inside of me. Tomorrow was the day.


	22. Chapter 22

**Hope you all had an awesome Christmas and New Year!****  
><strong>**  
><strong>**Chapter 22**

I had to see Draco. There was an itch under my skin, keeping him on my mind all the time. Hades returned in the morning while I was asleep and disappeared with the letter. When I woke up around 4am, the excitement I had felt last night returned almost instantly. Today I would finally see Draco. And there was nothing, not a single thing, that anyone at all could do about it. This was my life. Draco was _my _boyfriend. I never thought I would ever in my wildest daydreams hear myself say something like that. Just having the two words 'Draco' and 'boyfriend' in the same sentence was rather alien. But I liked it.

Once I had woken myself up properly (about half an hour later) I crept very slowly to the bathroom and had a quick shower. I had to look clean and fresh and tidy when we finally met up. If anyone asked why on earth I was showering at the crack of dawn, I would tell them…well I would just cross that bridge when I came to it. If I came to it. Thankfully, as far as I knew, no one woke up. I pulled on a pair of jeans and a simple top and a jacket. It might have been the height of summer but it was nearly 5am and there was a chill in the air. I tucked my wand into my pocket, stuffed a pillow under my blanket to make it look like I was sleeping (probably the oldest most useless trick in the book, but hey, it was worth a shot) and slid my window open.

From up here, the ground looked incredibly far away and incredibly hard. My bedroom was two storeys up. If I jumped, I would land on some overgrown shrubs full of weeds. But if I missed the landing, I would either land on a group of gnomes and probably break my legs or on the vicious looking thorns that desperately needed chopping away. My best bet was the shrubs. I threw a spare pillow out the window for added cushioning, praying I wouldn't break an ankle. I sat on the window ledge, half in, half out, dangling my legs down. I had to take a few deep breaths to prepare myself. If this failed, I would be imprisoned for life by my mother along with the broken bones. I counted down from 10. _3, 2, 1_. _Jump on 1, Ginny. Jump. Jump! JUMP!_

Five minutes later, I had plummeted out of my window and landed in the bushes below me. My ankle started throbbing almost instantly, but when I rolled it out a bit and stretched, the pain slowly ebbed away. Just a sprain, thank goodness. I stashed the pillow away in a crack under the house. I hardly ever used it anyway, I was sure the cats from the neighbours farm would find it to curl up on. I ran to the cover of the trees lining the driveway and glanced back at the rickety old house, creaking and swaying ever so slightly. Was that my father's face at a window? No, my mind was playing tricks on me. Everything was silent and dark in the pre-dawn light. The stars were still out as I breathed in the fresh air. _Freedom_. Very soon, I would be with Draco. I followed the line of trees to the main road and turned right, towards the village. About 10 minutes down the deserted road, I thrust my thumb out into the air.

Jayda had once told me of something that Muggles do when they need a ride somewhere. Pitch-piking? Hitching? Something along that line. They put their thumb out like I was doing and wait for someone to pick them up. It sounded harmless enough. I could walk to the village easily by myself, but it would have been nice to get a ride there. But after half an hour and no cars whatsoever, my thumb was beginning to ache from being extended for so long. It was nearly 6am when I finally reached the little village that we lived by. Up on a faraway hill, I could see the castle-shaped house that belonged to the Lovegoods. 6am. My mother would probably be waking now, getting things ready for the day. Preparing the eggs and sausages and bacon for a family breakfast. But I didn't need to be thinking about that. My thoughts turned instead to the blonde-haired boy that was waiting for me somewhere in the English countryside.

I sat down on a bench outside a small, dingy pub called The Greasy Skillet. It had been there for as long as I could remember. It was the local haunt for all the farmers in the area. Mum had always warned me and my brothers about it. It looked dirty but harmless now. At fifteen minutes past six, Draco's favourite House-Elf, Flibby, as he had told me in a letter earlier in the year, would appear outside the pub and take me to wherever it was Draco had chosen for us to meet. It was rather a flawless plan, because the Elf could whisk us away to wherever we liked and our families would be none the wiser. When I met up with Draco I would have to ask for a pat on the back for my brilliant idea. I closed my eyes as I waited for the seconds to tick by. Hopefully the Elf would be right on time. I couldn't bear it to wait any longer and every minute brought my family closer to discovering my disappearance.

"Don't move, there's an Abodidgeroo spider crawling up your back."

I jumped back to the present, my eyes opening suddenly to search for the voice that had startled me. It was familiar. It brought back memories of Hogwarts. But there was no one around anywhere. "Who's there?" I whispered, disregarding what the voice had actually said.

"Keep still, silly, I'll get it."

I felt a hand on my back briefly and then it was gone. I turned around quickly to see who had so mysteriously appeared at the break of dawn in the middle of nowhere, fear beginning to rise up in me. It was unnecessary, as Luna Lovegood smiled at me through the mist. In her hand was the tiniest of tiny golden brown spiders. It was barely visible against her palm. She twisted her hand around and around as the spider frantically sped every which way in a futile attempt to run away.

"Luna, you scared me half to death." I told her as my heart rate slowly went back to its normal pace.

She walked around to the front of the bench and perched on the edge next to me, staring dreamily at the spider. "I'm sure that's an exaggeration. It's the spider that should be the most scared of all of us."

I watched the tiny spider slowing down to a crawl as it realised that Luna meant him no harm. "What are you doing here at this time of the morning?" I automatically checked my watch, but I still had ten minutes before the House-Elf was supposed to appear here.

Luna ignored my question for a few minutes, her gaze following the spider's movements intently as it wove a web through her fingers. "These little guys are usually found out in the fields. They're Australian. They're rarely found by themselves. If you see one, there's usually more nearby. This one is most likely lost."

The spider had run his web around and around Luna's first two fingers. "You can save it then, Luna." I said with a smile.

She shook her head slowly as the spider descended on a thread, down to the grass at our feet. "Oh no, he has to find his own way back, otherwise he won't learn anything." Her orb-like eyes lifted up to meet mine for the first time. "Why are you up so early, Ginny?"

I found myself hesitating and averting my gaze, slightly embarrassed. Obviously, Luna knew about my involvement with Draco Malfoy but I did not know what she thought about it. "Just meeting a friend." I told her rather vaguely.

She didn't pass comment on my reply, instead turned back to look at the field she had emerged from. "I was collecting soil samples for Daddy. He has a theory about earthworms holding magical traits. You can read about it in the next Quibbler, I'll bring a copy over next week."

I smiled gratefully at her. I always enjoyed her quirkiness. We both jumped as a loud cracking noise nearly deafened us. The Elf had arrived. It was time to see Draco. I turned my head to find an Elf considerably shorter than most, covered in scars and bandages, wearing an ancient, grubby children's nightdress. "Miss Weasley? Ma'am, right this way, if you will, madam." She lowered her nose to the ground and extended a hand towards me.

Feeling slightly foolish, I stood up awkwardly. "Well, see you back at school, then." I said hastily to Luna.

She stood up also, looking very interested in the dirty little figure that had just appeared. "Oh, what a curious little friend. What do you two do together?"

I blushed and faltered. "Ah—we—"

"Madam, excuse me, madam, Master Malfoy wishes me to hurry, Miss, please, if it pleases you, ma'am, please, take my hand, please."

Luna's eyes dropped to the ground, probably to spare me anymore embarrassment. "Oh, see you in September, Ginny."

I watched her head back into the field before taking Flibby's hand and vanishing into thin air immediately. We reappeared almost instantly next to a dirt path that meandered down between sets of trees. I looked about for the flash of Draco's silver hair or pale skin but found nothing. I glanced down at the small Elf questioningly, but she didn't look at me. Instead she kept a firm hold of my hand and marched forward, following the path as it wandered through the wood. Eventually, the trees thinned and then ceased all together. The smell of saltwater filled the air and I realised, as my feet sank slightly with every step into the sand, that Draco had chosen a beach somewhere to meet. I loved the ocean. We rarely ever got to visit the beach, so I was rather thrilled at Draco's choice. At first, all I could see and hear was the endless crashing of the waves, taste the salt on my tongue. Then I saw Draco sitting alone on the grass bank, playing with another white flower. A gardenia, I was guessing.

Flibby disappeared with a crack as I made my way towards Draco, smiling. His eyes followed me as I sat down next to him. There was a smile on his lips that I liked the look of. "Hello." I said, feeling the nerves flutter around inside my stomach. I looked at him for as long as I could (around three seconds) before I blushed too much and had to stare out at the ocean to try and calm my red cheeks back down to their normal colour.

Draco offered me the flower. "Hello, Ginny Weasley. Another flower for you."

I took it with thanks and slipped it behind my ear again. "Is this another gardenia?" I asked, just to try and get the conversation started. Already the nerves were floating away on the wind. This felt unbelievably normal.

He smiled, with two little crinkles at the corner of each eye. I wanted dearly to reach out and touch the creases but resisted. I did not want him to know just how crazy I actually was. "This one is a camellia." He informed me.

I nodded, flicking my gaze back to the rolling waves. "Does it have any story behind it? Like the one about Helen of Troy?" I asked, if only to hear him say something romantic again.

He shook his head, the smile still hanging around on his lips. I watched the crinkles at his eyes. "This flower is for adoration."

It took me a second to realise how cute what he had just said was. My face blossomed with a pink blush and a coy smile found its way to the surface. He adored me. He was watching my response with a slightly amused smirk, which only increased the blushing until I was sure my face must have looked like a giant tomato. I looked away again, back to the sea. "Thanks." I murmured quietly.

The awkward air seemed to return momentarily. I was a hopeless conversation starter, that I had always known. I didn't know how good Draco was at getting the ball rolling either. Instead I brought my knees up under my chin and dug my hands into the sand, loving the cold silky feeling of it running through my fingers. Then I noticed Draco's feet, which were bare as they played in the sand, just as my hands were. His feet were the same pale skin as ever, with the ridges of tendons and bones running up and disappearing under his jeans. On a whim, I reached out and ran a finger along the ridges, feeling his soft skin and shivering. I did not look up at him to see his response. After a few seconds I realised how creepy it was that I was sitting here, fondling his foot. So instead, I slipped off my own sandals and pushed my cold feet into the sand as well. Magical.

"Have you eaten breakfast?" Draco asked. I suddenly thought how beautiful his voice was.

I sat back and put my arms behind me to lean on. "No, but there can't be much to eat around here is there? Unless you're secretly a skilled fisherman." I said jokingly, which caused him to chuckle quietly.

"Unfortunately, no. But I do know there's a picnic blanket set up just down there for us." He pointed to our left and stood up, brushing the sand from his behind. He reached out his hand for me to take.

"Any food sounds good to me right now." I took his hand and he pulled me up, but the shifting sand caused me to lose my balance, of course, which sent me falling into him. I put one hand on his chest to steady myself, while the other was gripped firmly in his hand. "Whoopsies."

As I stepped back, he was looking at me with an eyebrow raised and a smirk. "Now, you must have done _that_ on purpose. If you wanted a hug, you just had to ask."

It seemed blushing would be my thing today. This time it was a beetroot red, rising up to my cheeks. And this was completely insane, because the regular Ginny Weasley would have probably responded with a witty, sarcastic comment and a playful slap on the arm. This new Ginny Weasley, the blushing, shy little girl with a crush on the Slytherin, simply mumbled something incoherent and started walking in the direction that he had pointed out. After a few minutes silence, I decided that this would simply not do. If this was going to work out at all, I would have to be who I was. The bold, opinionated, loud Gryffindor that Draco had always known. If he didn't like the real me, well, he would just have to go jump. Apparently, he was in love with me. He just had to prove it.

He was trailing behind me slightly, so I turned around and walked backwards to talk to him. "So, what kind of food do you have waiting ahead?"

"You'll just have to wait and see. It's meant to be a surprise. Are you sure you want to walk backwards like that?"

I shrugged nonchalantly. "I wouldn't have to if you weren't so slow." I answered playfully.

He chuckled at me. "Well, you just don't seem to have the same co-ordination as me. I seem to remember you nearly falling over back there, or was that just me?"

I poked my tongue out at him before turning around again. "That was totally all your fault."

Suddenly, he appeared next to me and took my hand in his. "You wouldn't happen to be lying would you, Miss Weasley?" He joked with a grin.

I faltered briefly at the feel of our hands together but regained my composure fairly quickly. I put on a haughty air and a posh tone. "Of course not, I would not dream of it, Master Malfoy."

Ten minutes later, we reached a part of the beach where Draco had set up a picnic blanket in the sand. We sat down next to each other, facing the ocean. In a little brown basket, Draco (or more likely, Flibby) had packed a breakfast of tiny triangular sandwiches, orange juice, steaming hot coffee and croissants. It felt a lot more like a picnic lunch would but I didn't pass that comment on to Draco. Clearly he had put a huge amount of effort into this breakfast for us. The food was delicious, with the croissants still fresh and warm inside and the coffee a perfect way to perk me up for the rest of the day. The 4am start was certainly beginning to take its toll on me. Once we had eaten, we lay down next to each other to watch the sunrise properly. Draco told me this beach was somewhere in the southwest of England and he used to come here all the time as a child with his au pair and a broom. Everything felt so comfortable and natural. After some time, I felt brave enough to manoeuvre myself so that my head was resting on his chest. I could feel it rise and fall with every breath. And I closed my eyes to fall asleep, with the sound of the ocean tide, the smell of salty air and Draco Malfoy, and the feel of his hand as he played with my hair.

**OK, so I am not 100% pleased with this but yeah, what are ya gunna do. Apologies for the delay.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

We were both brought crashing back to life, having fallen asleep on the beach, to a loud crack signalling Flibby's return. Draco and I started and sat up simultaneously. I couldn't see Flibby anywhere. "Draco, who was that?" I pulled my wand out of my pocket, just to be safe.

He was searching the beach and the woods behind us for a sign of something. "It didn't sound like a House-Elf. Someone Apparated."

We both stood up to get a better look around. Draco grabbed my hand when he spotted a woman emerging from the trees. His mother, storming towards us at an alarming pace, looking irate. I had no idea what to expect. How similar to my own mother would she be? Would she get violent? I certainly hoped not. Draco seemed to grip my hand tighter and tighter the closer she got. This was his act of rebellion. I found myself wondering how much chance he got growing up to say no to his parents. The few occasions I had seen them, they appeared incredibly uptight. Mrs Malfoy was nearly in front of us now. To avoid any further confrontation, I slipped my wand back into its pocket. I didn't want her thinking I was going to attack. When she was standing in front of us, I couldn't help thinking how tall she was.

She looked absolutely livid. "Draco, what do you think you are doing?" She half-whispered, her lips barely moving, probably in anger. She didn't look at me. I felt like I was back on Platform 9¾ with my own mother.

"I'm just spending a morning here with my girlfriend, mother." He told her defiantly, passing me a reassuring glance.

Her eyes remained resolutely trained on her son. It was as if she didn't want to admit that I even existed. That was just dandy with me, as long as she didn't do anything reckless, I was happy. I was somewhat afraid of her. Not enough to let it show, though. "Your father and I have told you what we think of this_ relationship_. You were forbidden to see her. And here you are doing exactly what we told you not to do."

This woman was beginning to make me angry, and I could see Draco was getting annoyed too. "I am going to be seventeen next week, mother, you can't tell me what to do anymore," His mother's nostrils flared in anger and her face reddened at his words. As if to challenge her further, Draco let go of my hand and instead put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer to him. I didn't mind that it was mostly to show defiance, I liked being so close to him. "I _love_ Ginny. That's right, flinch and protest all you like but there is nothing you can do to change that."

I couldn't help the blush that ran up my cheeks for the millionth time that day, nor could I stop the shy smile that crossed my lips. I glanced up at him, and he passed me a smile. His mother, however, seemed to ball up in fury for a few moments as she decided what to do next. Before I knew it, she had slapped Draco across the face, leaving a bright red handprint on his cheek. She looked shocked for a second, that she had slapped him at all and to be honest, I was too. To Draco's credit, his face remained indifferent. He didn't even instinctively reach up to touch his cheek. He stayed where he was, his arm around me, staring coldly at his mother. I wondered if that was the first time his mother had slapped him like that.

Much to my dismay, Mrs Malfoy then turned to me with hatred in her eyes. "See what you have caused, you evil little girl? Why can't you just leave my son alone?" I kept my mouth shut. It seemed that my new rule was that silence was the best answer to anything and everything. She turned back to her son. "Come, Draco, we are leaving. Now, Draco, let's go."

She grasped his arm and yanked him away from me. With much resisting and angry words, Draco finally pulled his arm from my shoulders, looked at me apologetically and walked off trailing behind his mother. She didn't look back at me, but Draco kept glancing back. I felt so abandoned. A beach in the middle of nowhere. No way to get back to my house. And even if I did get back, what on earth would be waiting for me there? A set of magically enhanced handcuffs and bars across my window. I watched Draco head for the trees with his mother, but at the last minute he turned back and jogged through the sand back to me, despite the screams and protests of the woman behind him.

"Draco, what—"

It took a split second for him to cup my face gently in his warm hands, lean in close to me, engulf me in his intoxicating smell, and kiss me, at first softly, then more urgently, as if he knew it would be a while before we were this close again. Our lips parted, and we wrapped our arms around each other tightly. I felt his hot breath in my ear, tickling slightly. "Just wait here, I'll send Flibby."

He stood back and turned to leave. I felt I had to say something, anything, before he was gone. I reached out and touched his arm. "Draco, wait."

When he stopped and waited, I realised I didn't know what it was I wanted to say to him. After a minute, he started walking away again. "Ginny, I have to go." He said, somewhat impatiently.

This was my last chance. "Wait! I—I love you." I said quietly, the pink rising once again in my face. I watched his face for a response. When I realised that he was simply watching me, I dropped my gaze to the ground, embarrassed, and mumbled, "I just wanted to make sure you knew."

A second later I felt his hands on my arms. I looked up to see his face right there in front of mine. A soft second kiss. "I know it." Kiss number three, velvety. "I love you too." And a final kiss lasting five glorious seconds.

With that, he was gone, back into the woods, disappearing with his witch of a mother with a loud crack. I stood there numbly, mesmerised by all the kissing. Anyone would have thought, with a dramatic goodbye like that, that one of us was dying. I was snapped out of my trance as a sudden spit of rain started. I ran for the cover of the trees, stopping on the way to pack up the remains of our picnic. Under the trees, I glanced down at my watch to find that it was already past 8am. My family would be having a fit by now. Or would they? During my past days of imprisonment, I had been left to my own devices, to rot away by myself in my room. They rarely ever checked on me. It dawned on me that there was a meagre chance that I could return without my family even realising I had been gone. Of course, I would have to somehow get back to my bedroom without being seen, a feat that was probably nearly impossible.

Or perhaps not so impossible. Flibby materialized next to me. "Madam, please, take my hand, ma'am, please." She babbled in her squeaky voice.

"Wait, Flibby, can you take me back to my bedroom at the Burrow instead?" I asked hopefully.

The little Elf nodded, her ears flapping slightly with the movement. "Madam must needs please to take my hand first, madam."

We held hands and with a jolt I said farewell to the ocean and greetings once again to the boredom of my jail cell, the room I used to call my sanctuary. Thankfully, the room was empty. Before the Elf had a chance to disappear again, I stopped her. "Wait, Flibby, are you hungry? I'll go downstairs and get you some food, okay? Wait here."

Just as I stepped towards my bedroom door, it flung open with a rush to reveal my mother standing there, looking particularly flabbergasted. How much would she glean about what I had been up to, just by the sight of the House-Elf in my bedroom? She eyed Flibby and me warily, flicking back and forwards between us both. Then she looked me up and down. "What's all the sand? Have you-? Were you-? Who's—who's the Elf? Where—who-?"

She seemed completely incapable of stringing a coherent sentence together. "Mum? What's wrong?" I asked, trying to play up my innocence. With a wipe of my hand across my backside, a spray of sand fell to the floor and I realised how wind-swept and sandy I must have looked. I really hadn't thought this day through very well.

"Ginny—what's—_where have you been_!" Sensing the impending doom, I nodded my head at Flibby to send her away and to safety. She was gone in a split-second. I looked back at my mother, who was obviously trying to process everything in her head. "_Well_? Ginny Weasley, you tell me where you have been right now, where has all the sand come from, why are your feet so dirty, why did you not come down for breakfast, who was that Elf?"

She threw question after question at me so fast that I myself became just as flustered as she had been. "I went to the beach for breakfast with Draco. That was his House-Elf, bringing me back." I explained as if this was common knowledge.

My mother practically had an aneurism. Her face and chest swelled up like a giant red balloon. She sputtered and stammered, doing her best to arrange some kind of sentence that would end with a punishment for me. Either that, or she was to trying to remember some sort of spell she had found that would stop children from disrespecting their parents. Hadn't she learnt by now that that was what we were born to do?

"_You_—stay here!" She finally cried, before turning foot and slamming the door behind her. She had probably just gone to take a few moments to recuperate, gather her senses, salvage the ability to speak intelligibly,

"I'm not going anywhere." I murmured quietly, more to myself than anyone in particular. She would not have heard it anyway.

I sat down on my bed and waited. And waited. And waited. No one came. Eventually, I gave up waiting and took a nap. By nightfall, I guessed my family were returning to the 'freeze her out' technique, whereby they hoped to make me see sense by ignoring me indefinitely. Because that had been _so_ successful last time. I ventured downstairs to gather some stockpiles of food – a few bread rolls, some cold sausages, a jug of water, and some of Ron's Honeydukes sweets saved up from his birthday that he had hidden away in a clay pot in the kitchen, obviously not hidden well enough, but I guess that was to be expected from someone like Ron. I stashed my food in a pillowcase under the bed. The next morning, my mother returned with a blank face to retrieve my wand and any parchment I had in my room. She barely spoke three words to me.

That was to be the basis for the rest of my summer. No wand or magic of any kind. No letters. Enchantments across the window to prevent access to owls. A plate of stale leftovers three times a day, brought to me by Ron, usually, though occasionally my mother would collect a dish just to check up on me. I was being treated like an animal. I was miserable. Not only had my family made it very clear that they would hate me if I stayed with Malfoy, but the boy causing all the ruckus had not even bothered to contact me. With a loyal Elf like Flibby at his call, even if his parents had taken away his wand and letter-writing abilities (perhaps they had even had Hades executed, I thought with a pang of guilt and worry, even though it was the least of my worries), Draco could have easily sent his servant to me with a letter or note or some sort of coded message that he was alright and thinking of me. I could have sent him…a lock of my hair in return. Or was that far too dramatic? I didn't even have scissors to cut a piece out. One boring afternoon, on a whim as I sat wondering about it all, I pulled a few strands of my hair from my head and arranged them painstakingly into a bow. Pathetic.

What if Draco's parents had gotten to him, forced him, tortured him like evil demons to stop seeing me? And they had succeeded? With my boredom and fast-deteriorating disposition to life in general, I got the idea firmly implanted in my head that Draco now hated me. His parents probably threatened removal from Hogwarts, no more servants, perhaps no more privileges too. And Draco would have yielded eventually. No fluffed up Slytherin would have risked everything for a red-headed little Gryffindor girl. Not even in my wildest daydream (and trust me, I had been having more than a few lately). Even though I became so sure that Draco had given up on his gardenia girl and moved on to someone his parents approved of, it didn't stop me from dreaming about him all day and all night long. I felt like I was going crazy. The things running through my head were utterly bizarre. I had known Malfoy most of my life. I had liked Teddy for a couple of months. But I had loved Draco for at least a few weeks. And it was those weeks that counted the most. To me, anyway. When I closed my eyes, I imagined I could feel his hands, gritty with sand but warm and soft on my face. I could smell him, his smell, only him, that distinct cologne, the smell in his hair, on his clothes, his skin. The grey eyes, penetrating even the most hardened glare. His taste, sweet and tangy, on my tongue, with his lips tingling on mine.

And there were nightmares too. Draco had left me in real life. So he haunted my dreams. Giving me flowers, only to turn out that they were poisoned and I would collapse, frothing and spitting and choking to death on the ground while he watched on and cackled with laughter. I would usually wake wet through with sweat, my t-shirt somehow wrapped around my neck. One night I woke up and as my eyes adjusted, I could have sworn I saw him standing tall and shadowy in the corner of my room watching me. Not dissimilar from the night in the Hospital Wing. Every time I tried to look at him he would be blotchy and dark and disappear, but if I looked away, I could distinctly make out his outline in the corner of my eye, his silver-blonde hair shining in the moonlight. I called out to him but he didn't reply. Just watched me. The next morning, my brother made a snide comment that I talked in my sleep so I tried to scratch his eyes out. And so the summer passed.

The morning of the first day of school, the first day of my NEWTs, I ventured out of my hole and almost instinctively held a hand to shield my eyes from the bright light of the sun that I hadn't seen in so many weeks. Then I remembered my prison cell had windows and I reminded myself to stop being so theatrical. I got myself ready for school as quietly as I could. Waited downstairs in the sitting room for my family. When it was ticking down to the last minutes before we would officially be late, they came tromping downstairs, Ron, mum and dad. They all ignored my existence completely, bar a toss of my wand at me from mummy dearest. I resented them all. Tearing my beloved away from me. I didn't even really want to go to school. Lord only knew what awaited me there. Dramas from the summer would have erased talk of Draco and I, thank Merlin, but I would still have to see him around. Fate had a cruel way of forcing people into my path that I did not want to see, as if it was mocking my misfortune. I realised on the way to King's Cross, with a dark and gloomy thought, that my family had won.

Jayda found me on the train ride. She had broken up with Ryan Ferguson over the summer. She wasn't exactly thrilled about it, but she said it was the right thing to do. At least I could be miserable together with my best friend. We wallowed together for the entire journey, devouring far too many chocolate frogs in the process. In the Great Hall for the Sorting, I sat so that my back was facing the Slytherin table. So far, so good, I had not caught sight of the blonde hair anywhere yet. But I still had a year to go before I could be sure I would never see him again, so I wasn't celebrating just yet. The first week passed, with piles of homework and not a single glimpse of the Slytherin. A part of me almost wanted to see him, just so I could be sure I didn't want to see him. It made sense to me, anyway.

Sunday morning found me by the lake alone, shredding blades of grass. I was reflecting over the week that had been. Imagining the grass was various people I disliked. Rather morbid, but it stopped me from doing it in person. I had been through the usual suspects – my brother, Harry Potter (who had sought me out in the Common Room after the Sorting to 'chat', which encompassed a not-so-subtle hint at a relationship and an _accidental_ thigh graze), Blaise Zabini and most of the Hogwarts faculty when I realised who my next victim was. Just as I was about to shred the blade of grass resembling Draco Malfoy, a vividly red flower fell into my lap. It was exquisitely unique, with a rich red centre and thin spindly arms that reached out in all directions. I had seen this before. A spider flower. I picked it up and held it to my nose to get its scent.

Then a voice shattered the silence and startled me. "Ginny Weasley." It said, quietly.

I jumped and watched Draco sit down next to me. Not too close but close enough. Any trace of the beautiful flowers aroma was gone as his smell filled the air around me. I looked into his eyes. What was it I could see there? Something, there was definitely something there that I could not put a name to.

"You've been avoiding me." He stated, and I could hear the emotion behind his words.

I gave a small hint of a shrug. "I wasn't sure what to do, really. You just left me there, at the beach. And then I didn't hear a single word from you all summer."

Draco sighed. "My parents were practically keeping me under lock and key. I couldn't write. They sent Flibby away. What was I supposed to do?"

"I don't know, anything. Something. I thought you—I thought…it was gone."

"Never."

"I started thinking about you as Malfoy, before I knew you properly. You were so cruel to me sometimes. How could you do it?" I didn't know why I was bringing this up, but it seemed relevant enough. And over my incarceration through the summer, my mind had wandered far back enough to the close encounters of the Malfoy kind, when he had nearly brought tears to my eyes.

"Ginny, why are you thinking about that stuff? It's over, done." In a swift movement, he had swivelled to face me properly and taken my hands in his, holding them gently. I couldn't take my eyes off our hands, together. When I didn't respond, he said further, "Some things I have done, I'm not proud of. But you need to know, Ginny, anytime I spoke to you, it was the most difficult thing in the world to stop myself from just reaching out and touching your face, from kissing you. It's the hardest thing I have ever done and ever will do in my life, ever."

"Really?" I asked meekly, barely able to get my words out over the emotion that was tumbling around trying to escape as well.

"Yes," His hand came to my chin and he lifted it slightly so that I was looking at him. "There's nothing that matters more to me now than being with you. You are everything, Ginny."

Finally, that was it, and I reached forward and initiated a kiss of my own. His hand reached up and ran through my hair, while the other was resting on my waist. I could feel the warmth. I pulled back and rested my head on his chest. He was so incredibly warm, there was just something about him that relaxed everything inside me until I could just fall asleep right there, content.

I sat back and gazed out at the lake, then down at the red spider flower sitting in my lap. I picked it up and twirled it between my fingers. "What does this one mean?" I asked. It really was beautiful.

I felt his fingers playing with my hair and his eyes watching me, so I looked up at him to see a wry smile cross his face. "I think you should try and figure that one out for yourself."

**END**

**Yeah, so whaddya think? Please review, it was one of the most difficult chapters for me to write in the history of ever, so please give me feedback! Thanks guys and for real fans, you can discover what the spider flower means if you like ;) If you do, you will maybe figure out my future ideas! Anyway, I am now working on a one-shot for the Secret Garden movie which some of you may like, if you have seen the movie. But more stories to come, for sure! So, please review and thank you to everyone for all the reviews and support throughout this story! :) Best wishes to all xx**


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